"When a child is drowning, don't try to teach them to swim"

Play Therapy Parenting: Real Parenting Questions Answered by a Child Therapist · May 13, 2021 · 10m

One of the "Rules of Thumb" that we teach you in the In-Home Play Therapy program is this concept of "When a child is drowning, don't try to teach them to swim." In this podcast, I discuss why it is so important to remember that children don't have abstract reasoning skill until starting about 12. So "teaching a lesson" in the middle of an emotional moment for your child is absolutely futile... you need to meet them in their emotion to de-escalate the situation.

References:

Cochran, N., Nordling, W., & Cochran, J. (2010). Child-Centered Play Therapy (1st ed.). Wiley.

VanFleet, R., Sywulak, A…