This is how the contemporary English aristocracy is raising their children: they bend down to listen to them and speak to them, putting themselves on their level.
Can you imagine that you were surrounded by giants and that when you needed to speak to them you only saw their legs? That would get the stone out of you, of course… Anyone would be in a bad temper! Especially children, who are learning to manage their emotions. That’s why your kids, nephews, and younger siblings (and you, when you were a kid) throw tantrums..
There is a technique to avoid tantrums so effective that even British royalty use it: active listening. It is a method that although it is not only applied with children, it is very effective with them.
“It is a skill that helps us develop the ability to empathize with others. By listening and understanding what the other person is telling us, we learn to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes, and not only to hear what they say to us, but to we try to imagine how he feels and find out the reasons and needs that lead him to say what he says“, Explains in his blog is psychologist Antoni Martínez.
As explained on the portal Guiainfantil.comactive listening proposes that adults are the ones who have to put ourselves in the place of children and not the other way around. For this reason, when Prince William and his wife Kate speak with children (whether their own or others) they crouch down, squatting, to be at the height of their interlocutors, in this way the connection is made more easily.
As explained on the page cited above, this method works because:
- Strengthens the mother/father-child bond
- Helps understand childhood tantrums
- Grant authority and respect to adults without instilling fear
- Children pay better attention and feel more confident
- Boosts the child’s self-esteem
- Develop empathy from a young age
- Parents learn to understand how their children feel and to modify inappropriate behavior
Tell us what you think in the comments of this noteand share it on your social networks, your friends and family with children will thank you.