Children experience feelings in a big way as they learn to regulate their emotions. A recent child development training for parents in the Antelope Valley helped participants learn to address these behaviors and “FLIP IT.”
That’s an acronym for Feelings, Limits, Inquiries, and Prompts. The Center for Resilient Children explains each element:
Feelings: Gently talk with the child about their feelings. Tell them what you see and hear as a result of their emotions. Help them to identify the root feeling causing the behavior.
Limits: Remind the child of the positive limits and expectations you have for their behavior. Loving and simple limits help surround children with a sense of consistency, safety and trust.
Inquiries: Encourage the child to think about solutions to their challenges. Ask questions that promote problem-solving and healthy coping skills. Inquiries invite children to think, learn, and gain self-control.
Prompts: Provide creative cues, clues, and suggestions for the child who is having difficulty. Enthusiastic, bright ideas can lead the way to better problem-solving skills.
Through this training, parents and caregivers learn the tools and skills to strengthen, foster, and support child development. FLIP IT teaches ways to positively address everyday challenging behaviors for children ages 3-8 years old.
“Challenging behaviors can be a struggle for a lot of us and FLIP IT is a research-based strategy with four steps to help children learn health self-control and help parents learn problem solving tools that last a lifetime,” said ECE Community Trainer Valerie Avitto.
The supportive strategies are proven ways to help young children in identifying their feelings, learning healthy self-control, and reducing those challenging behaviors. Participants leave the training with tools they can use immediately.
“We have a lot of positive feedback, saying they started using and implementing the FLIP IT strategy after our first sessions, talking about their own feelings and identifying their own feelings and working with their children’s feelings,” said Avitto.
Jessica, a mother of four, said the skills are useful for any parent.
“The flip it program helped me learn new techniques to use on my children when they’re having tantrums and not behaving. I feel it’s beneficial to any parent, whether you’re a first time mom or mother of multiples, it has great stuff to learn,” said Jessica.
Visit our community calendar for parent and provider trainings.
