Help Me Grow | United Way of Utah County

Tag: Social Emotional Development

How to Prevent a Public Temper Tantrum

Every parent has witnessed a temper tantrum at one time or another. Your child is screaming while you stand there trying to decide what to do. It can be even more daunting when you have an audience watching. Public temper tantrums can be difficult, but below you will find some positive parenting strategies to ease

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Navigating Children’s Emotional Meltdowns

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about toddlers, it’s that they have some pretty big feelings, and sometimes they struggle to convey those feelings well. Sometimes, they know what they’re trying to say, but are unsure about how to express what they feel, or they may not understand what they’re feeling, and that can be scary

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6 Ways to Help Your Child Cope with Worry and Anxiety

Is your child nervous about the start of the school year? It’s common for all kids to feel nervous about beginning school. For some though, those beginning of the year nerves turn into something more. If you’ve noticed your student is struggling with excessive worry or anxiety, there are several simple things you can do

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How to Explain Difficult Subjects to Young Children

We live in a time of political turmoil, disease, and natural disasters. At home, we may be enduring trials such as divorce, the death of a loved one, or mental illness. These difficult subjects are hard enough to talk about with other adults. Attempting to explain these events to children can be a daunting task.

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Helping Your Child with Personal Boundaries

Personal boundaries are more than just standing 6 feet apart from strangers. Some children are too shy to engage with many of their friends, so they don’t have a lot of practice with appropriate boundaries. Some children are best of friends with everyone they meet, and parents may worry this will put their child in

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Benefits of Allowing Your Child to Fail

While allowing kids to fail feels messy and frightening, letting them learn from their mistakes helps them to become empowered, releasing the controlling hold of fear that paralyzes decisions and helps develop lasting, deep-rooted accountability along with, ironically, building the self-confidence that comes with personal autonomy and recovery from failure. Failure is a part of

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Public Tantrum Survival Guide

It’s 5:10 pm. You were supposed to be at the park to meet the babysitter 10 minutes ago. But you’re stuck at the grocery store waiting in line after rushing in to grab “just a few things”… with the 3-year-old. Shockingly, Susie kept asking for candy after you specifically told her NO MORE CANDY. You’re

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Teaching Kids To Handle Embarrassment

I remember when I was 12 my family went to a restaurant and the waiter asked me the classic question, “Do you want soup or salad?”. I had just graduated from the kid’s menu and wasn’t used to that question, so misunderstanding what he said I responded very confused with, “Yeah I’ll have the super-salad…”.

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5 Tips for Improving Family Mealtime

Children in today’s hurried, high-tech world need structured, routine times when they can connect with their parents and siblings. One of the best ways to do that is family mealtimes. Many of us are so busy that we may feel if we are not multi-tasking all the time, we are not productive enough. We often

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