What's the earliest a kid starts to show a meltdown?
Is there any difference between meltdowns and tantrums?
Will you handle meltdowns differently at your house vs in public?
What are the strategies you can use to Prevent meltdowns from happening?
Dr. Avirett is a Licensed Psychologist. For the last decade, she has worked with children and young adults across the southwest for counseling and diagnostic evaluations.
Dr. Avirett has been married for 15 years and has 3 children, ages 2, 9, and 11. Being a parent has given her fresh insight into the world of ever-evolving parenting challenges (e.g. the things they don’t ever teach in graduate school!)
This, along with her clinical experience, leads her to work with families and guide parents toward positive and effective parenting strategies.
This episode is FULL of examples and techniques of how to handle your everyday challenges with your kids. For more on this topic, check in the tantrums parenting guide (blog) and Mind & Child WEBSITE (90 minutes ONLY of online videos). And this is not an affiliation, I simply want you to have those reliable resources :-)
The top episodes you might want to look at :
Tell me what's your Halloween custom by Instagram or email me :-)
New offer!
Free Parent Talk around Healthy Boundaries.
As a certified parent coach, I can help you own your parenting style!
Want to connect?
Join the Bonding Boost Newsletter (We'll keep it short & sweet)!
What's the earliest a kid starts to show a meltdown?
Is there any difference between meltdowns and tantrums?
Will you handle meltdowns differently at your house vs in public?
What are the strategies you can use to Prevent meltdowns from happening?
Dr. Avirett is a Licensed Psychologist. For the last decade, she has worked with children and young adults across the southwest for counseling and diagnostic evaluations.
Dr. Avirett has been married for 15 years and has 3 children, ages 2, 9, and 11. Being a parent has given her fresh insight into the world of ever-evolving parenting challenges (e.g. the things they don’t ever teach in graduate school!)
This, along with her clinical experience, leads her to work with families and guide parents toward positive and effective parenting strategies.
This episode is FULL of examples and techniques of how to handle your everyday challenges with your kids. For more on this topic, check in the tantrums parenting guide (blog) and Mind & Child WEBSITE (90 minutes ONLY of online videos). And this is not an affiliation, I simply want you to have those reliable resources :-)
The top episodes you might want to look at :
Tell me what's your Halloween custom by Instagram or email me :-)
New offer!
Free Parent Talk around Healthy Boundaries.
As a certified parent coach, I can help you own your parenting style!
Want to connect?
Join the Bonding Boost Newsletter (We'll keep it short & sweet)!
Hey Iren, how are you today?
Dr.Erin Averitt:I'm good. How are you, Tammy?
Tammy Afriat:I'm doing awesome and I'm really acknowledging you taking the time and talking about how to stop the meltdown before it even started because meltdowns is something that so many parents are dealing with.
Dr.Erin Averitt:Thank you for having me.
Tammy Afriat:Sure. So I want to ask you, is there any difference between meltdowns and tantrum?
Dr.Erin Averitt:Yes. So neither term is clinical or diagnostic, so neither one is officially. a term in like our diagnostic manual, we use both pretty colloquially. most people do use those terms interchangeably to really describe a kid who is behaviorally having a very hard time maybe acting out, maybe screaming, crying, falling to the ground. There are some people who differentiate them, who describe a tantrum as something that's a little bit more. Behavioral as a means to get something specific. So maybe you're at the store and your child asks you for a candy bar and you say no. And so they fall to the ground screaming, saying, I'm not gonna move a muscle till you bite me that candy bar. Right? So a lot of people would describe that as a tantrum. The child is trying to get something specific, whereas a meltdown can be described as just losing control because maybe you're overregulate. Emotionally, or there's too many sounds and lights in the environment and you're dysregulated and just cannot control your body or your thoughts or your actions. So I think a lot of people do use them interchangeably, which is fine. A lot of parents who come into my private practice use them interchangeably I don't necessarily differentiate the difference, but there is definitely a group of people out there that separate them and that separation I think makes sense.
Tammy Afriat:I get that. So cuz. In my mind, sometimes tantrums is really more of an aggressive behavior and meltdowns because it's, it seems like visually like puddle. So I'm thinking, about introverted kids who are disregulated. They're not necessarily being aggressive, so we call it meltdowns. It's more mellow Which lead?
Dr.Erin Averitt:Right, right.
Tammy Afriat:Which leads me to the next question so what's the earliest a kid starts to show meltdown?
Dr.Erin Averitt:I mean, you will see it in infants before the age of one, which , I would not necessarily describe that as like a tantrum or meltdown. But you'll. Babies who are upset, and that is their main way to communicate, right? Which is to cry and scream and thrash it out, which is normal. That's not a problem. That's how they're communicating. But you see that same behavior continue into the toddler years, in the preschool years. And it is a form of communication. Your child is trying to tell you something, but they don't yet have the words or , the control to be able to tell you that in this kind of a.
Tammy Afriat:So the thing is that as soon as the child is able to communicate his needs, then we call it tantrum or a meltdown, because we expect him to start and develop those kind of skills and say, Hey, that's what I need, , right?
Dr.Erin Averitt:Yes. I would say that's when we start to think of it as a problem is whenever we know that our kid has the capability to communicate it in a different way. But they're not and , typically developmentally, they're not fully capable of communicating the way we want them , to, But as parents, we're maybe expecting a little bit more.
Tammy Afriat:Yeah, that's why we're talking to you. So , you, will give us the tools to help and coach them into regulating, , themself. So how,
Dr.Erin Averitt:precisely.
Tammy Afriat:how would you describe a meltdown for an introverted kids?
Dr.Erin Averitt:That's an interesting question, and , I'm not sure if there is a direct correlation because I've seen kids who are very quiet, who are very content, you know, being by themselves and playing quietly. But if they get dysregulated, suddenly that meltdown is. Huge and very big. And and opposite of that, I have kids who are really gregarious and outgoing and social and kinda loud, but when they get upset, they shut down and they're quiet and they freeze. So I'm not really sure if there is, you know, a direct relationship between intro, introversion, extroversion and the degree of the meltdown., I think it's just gonna vary based on the kid and the skills that they have and how they are communicating. They're upset with you.
Tammy Afriat:Meaning that if I see a change of the behavior of my child, that could potentially. His own way to show me he's dysregulated. He has a meltdown, Right,
Dr.Erin Averitt:right. So you may have a kiddo who just shuts down. So I have a two year old girl who is pretty quiet naturally. As she is figuring out how to communicate more and more with us. Sometimes she does have tantrums that are loud and she here recently, she's tried a few things where it's really just her yelling in our faces and she's, you could tell she's just trying a few different things. Just kind of figure out what's working and what feels good to her and what, can get her whatever she's needing in that moment. But there's also moments where she does just completely freeze, and so she just kind of, Freezes and puts her head down or like puts her forehead against the wall, and that's her way of also showing us that she is upset and she's needing something. But I wouldn't necessarily describe that as a meltdown or a tantrum. That's her shutting down. She's upset. We need to address that, but it's not like a big, loud behavior.
Tammy Afriat:So you tend to say that meltdowns are more of the aggressive
Dr.Erin Averitt:yeah. Not necessarily aggressive, but typically when we talk about tantrums and meltdowns, it is more external, so more physically you can see it. There's more movement. It may be a little bit louder. and there's definitely a kind of a loss of control. Of your behavior, Right? Where we also have kids who just shut down and freeze and that is a different response to a similar route, but , they're showing you that level of upset in a different way.
Tammy Afriat:This fight or flight?
. Dr.Erin Averitt:Or freeze. Freeze is definitely in there as well.
Tammy Afriat:Fight, flight or freeze. The three F
Dr.Erin Averitt:Yes.
Tammy Afriat:that's an easy way to remember it. So let's dive in. How to stop the meltdown before it even started.
Dr.Erin Averitt:Yes, yes. So , we talk about this a little bit in our parenting course as well, and really the best way that you address meltdowns is when the meltdown is not happening. So it's in all of the moments in between those hard moments where you are building up your kids' skills and you are also meeting needs. So a lot of times when a child does have a meltdown, it's because they're feeling out of control or maybe they're feeling like they're not getting enough attention., and , , sometimes it is because they're just overregulated based on the situation and all of the sensory things happening in the situ. So our job as parents to make sure that those needs are being met and all of the times that things are going well for them. So making sure that they have control over little things in their environment. So, are you gonna eat eggs for breakfast or cereal for breakfast? Are you gonna wear that your red shirt today, or your blue shirt today? Making sure that they have lots of control, Making sure that they are having good one-on-one time with you every day, regardless of the day, regardless of busyness and schedules or behavior even that they're getting that one-on-one time. and there's also a piece to it where we are teaching them skills, so teaching them how to describe their emotions to us, which means that if we see an emotion in our kid, we should be labeling it regardless of if it's excited, happy, you're thrilled. Or if it's, Man, you're really frustrated right now, man. Feeling really sad. You're feeling really mad about that cuz you are giving them that emotional vocabulary so that eventually whenever they are upset, when they are dysregulated, when they're about to go into meltdown mode, that can start to click in and they can start to actually communicate and tell you, Oh, I'm really frustrated right now. also a big thing that we talk about is giving your child calming down strategies. So teaching them how to do some deep breathing to get the oxygen moving back through their body so they can think a little bit clearer. But the only way for that really to work is to be practicing it when your child is already calm. So if the only time you ever ask your child to take a deep breath is when they're already at like a level 10 meltdown, it's not gonna work ever. But if you're practicing it every day when they're already calm and they're already doing well, then when they start to get into that meltdown mode and you cue them to take a deep breath, it's gonna be a little bit more automatic and natural for them. So that that's a big piece. And I think it's hard for parents to remember like when our child is not melting down, we still need to be working on melting down skills. and then we get in the thick of it and suddenly we feel like we are scrambling and we don't know what to do.
Tammy Afriat:Can I ask you something? Because with my younger child, three years old, I would practice that and then when time is heated, I would say, Hey, do you wanna do breathing? And he would do like totally different of what we did. And then he , kept with his tantrum. So I figured that breathing for him is not the best strategy. So can you please share a little bit like other strategies,
Dr.Erin Averitt:strategies. Yeah, absolutely. is not for every kid, and sometimes even just like you modeling what a deep breath looks like without asking him to kids can pick up on that easier than the verbal cue. So if you. Physically and exaggeratedly. Taking a deep breath in through your nose, out through your mouth, and doing that a few times and calming yourself down. Your kid's gonna be more likely to model that, but breathing may not calm down your child. He may be a kiddo who needs to go run a couple of laps or who needs to do some stretches or do some yoga or tear paper up into a bunch of little pieces and throw it. So part of it is just figuring. How your child needs to get out, that energy to get him , calm again. And you will observe that when he's just playing. Right? So how does he play? How does he get out his energy?, and you can bring some of the things that he naturally does to get out his energy in the moments where he's starting to get dysregulated. Does that make sense?
Tammy Afriat:I liked it. Yeah, we're talking about prevention management and the way parents might do it is observe his child, realized how his energy is released when he's calm and the use the same way when he's has a meltdown, but practice it when he's calm, Got it. Makes sense.
Dr.Erin Averitt:Yes., you know, I think doing the prevention strategies, making sure you're meeting kids needs and you're building up your skills that helps prevent a good chunk of meltdowns, tantrums from ever happening. But your kids are still humans. We're still humans. They are gonna still. Have hard moments where they start to melt down. And so I think it's really key as a parent to start to notice those. So you might notice patterns of, oh, every time I ask him to put his Legos up and come to the dinner table, it results in a meltdown. So I need to approach that situation differently. Or to notice when he's at a level one or two of the meltdown versus not really recognizing it until he's at a level 10, you know, And starting to put some strategies into place early. So , we talk about a lot of those strategies in our course., the key to a lot of that though is forward momentum. So as our kids start to go into a tantrum, meltdown mode, all times their brains get stuck. And they're not thinking fully, they're not processing fully. And it's our job as parents to get them unstuck, to help them move forward., one way to do that, which I've already talked about, is giving them controlled choices. So, hey, do you wanna hop into the car or do you want me to swoop you into the car like an airplane? So giving them an opportunity to choose how they're gonna do that thing that they don't want to do., the key there, even with control choices is thinking about that forward momentum. So when , my oldest is now 11, when he was two, he suddenly turned into a really difficult kid. He was a super easy baby. And then when he hit those toddler years, there was just a lot of defiance. I called him Jude third option, Averitt, because I'd give him two options all the time and he'd always come up with a third option , to go with. So I. Made some mistakes back then cuz in my brain I never wanted him to go with that third option cuz in my brain that was his way of maybe manipulating the situation or pushing boundaries. And if I gave into that third option, I was worried that then he would go over with a fourth option or a fifth option. But now looking back on it, I just realized he's a really smart kid and he recognized that my two options were sometimes very arbitrary. And there was a very logical third option. So if I said, Do you wanna wear your red shirt or your blue shirt today? And he would. How about my green shirt? I would get stuck in that of, no, I gave you these two options. You need to choose one of them. Whereas in reality, the green shirt was a logical option and he was intelligent enough to see that and to ask if he could have that third option. so as a parent now with a decade of parenting experience, I'm under my belt. I'm better at recognizing. Need for forward momentum there. So if that third option is a logical, valid option, then I would say, Great dude. Like that green shirt sounds like a great idea. Let's put it on and keep moving. And there's times where the third option is not valid and or it's not a realistic option, and you do have to bring , the original two options back up and let him choose between those. but I think it's really focusing on how can we move forward? How can we get unstuck?
Tammy Afriat:So for example, I'm taking in a scenario with two or three years old, you want them to be on the car and then you have timeframe you have to go to work, you know, by eight o'clock and , you gave them those two option. You either climb or I'm you this airplane and I putt you the, and he's not willing to do any of those. So what do you recommend to do in this scenario?
Dr.Erin Averitt:So there's several different tricks you can try in those moments. One thing is, if you know that mornings are hard, you have to give yourself some extra time in any situation where you can just plan like, Okay, we're gonna get up 30 minutes earlier this Tuesday. Cause I know I have to get to work early. Like, planning ahead as a parent is going to help, , if he's still stuck on choices. Other things we do is we try to make the situation fun. So any way that you can, like maybe put pajamas on a stuffed animal before you put 'em on yourself or like, Hey, we need to get to the kitchen. Are we gonna , hop like bunnies? Are we gonna spin like tornadoes? Like how do you wanna get there? Am I gonna pick you up and room you?, also one thing that we talk about is doing like a reset. So if he is in like a huge melt automotive and you can't. Get him unstuck. You might need to actually like move rooms, move locations, do something different for a minute. So maybe go outside, take him up and go outside and get some fresh air and then come back in and say like, Okay, let's try this shirt thing again. Or just take a minute to go Blow bubbles. In the living room for a second and then come back and try the shirt again. So sometimes that his brain just gets stuck and you need to switch the scenes, switch the location, switch the activity for a few minutes in order to come back. Now there are times where you just don't have time for that and you have to just become. The parent that has to put your kid in the car crying and he is going to be crying and screaming off the whole way to school or work. And that's okay cuz we're all human beings. We all have hard mornings. We can't get it perfectly. We don't have an extra 30 minutes to get our kid on the right track every time, and that is okay. So give yourself grace in those moments. Give your kid grace in those moments and just know if most of the mornings you guys are working together. To make the morning smoother. It eventually will get a little smoother. It just takes some time.
Tammy Afriat:So I'm Sens. As a parent, it's okay to give those two options. You either sit by yourself or I'm will because mommy just have to go to work. So by counting to five, you have to make the decision and do it,. Dr.Erin Averitt: Yes. There's been many times where I've said like, Hey, you can either get in the car by yourself or Mommy will put you in the car. What are you gonna choose? Oops, you didn't choose, and it's time to go. So mommy's gonna put you in the car. So I see you're feeling really sad about this, and that's okay, but we're still gonna get in the car and go to school and work and that that's okay. It's okay for your kid to cry and be upset with it., but , at the same time, we're still working on making the morning smoother, but it's. And once you do it, you reinforce , him taking the smart choice and like buckling up himself the next time when he's capable, but at least sit there. I get that. And I like realistic solution through situation because truly sometimes you can't wait forever., and also, something clicked for me when you said, that he's crying and it's okay for him to cry. I feel like many times we as parent manage meltdown in public from a place of I need to make him quiet the fastest I can, but
Dr.Erin Averitt:Mm-hmm.
Tammy Afriat:what I will choose to do will actually do the opposite. Like , you talked about grocery shop. So if he would cry and I would say, No, you don't get it, but then I will give it to him. So he will just be quiet. He'll get it the next time he can cry even harder and he'll get what he wants. So, I feel it's part of the work that you just mentioned, it's okay for the kids to cry and you can still set the boundary and hold it right
Dr.Erin Averitt:A Absolutely. I think public situations always add a layer for parents, cuz there is just. Pressure, there's embarrassment, there's prying eyes of other people. And I think a good question to ask yourself is, how would I handle this if we were at home right now with nobody watching and handle it in that same way, even in the grocery store. And if you know the granny on the next aisle is giving you the evil eye, okay, that's her problem. But I'm still gonna handle my kid exactly how I would if we were in our kitchen, right. So I, but it's hard, more power to all the parents handling that in the grocery store. Cause I know. It's a tricky situation and I'm a child psychologist in a small town, so I've definitely been in a situation before where my kid is melting down and I have a client over on the, down the aisle for me, and I, you know, there's so much pressure there, to handle that appropriately. And you won't always handle it appropriately. Sometimes you will give him the candy bar to just make him be quiet and move on give yourself grace in those moments., we can't be perfect all the time and it's not gonna hurt him or ruin him to not do it perfectly every time. Sometimes you just have to survive the day, and that's okay.
Tammy Afriat:So , as a parent, I can tell it's kind of a shame and you take the responsibility for whatever your kid is doing, but the truth is that the kid is a kid and he pushes the boundaries that his role in the world, and it's okay for me to. Disconnect myself from his behavior and do my job as a parent. Right? So that's the confidence I needed. And you just articulate it so well. And I love the idea of do whatever you would do in your house setting, the kitchen. I love that. It's brilliant. Thank you.
Dr.Erin Averitt:Good. I'm so glad and I truly think that most parents and most people out in public. support you. You know, like it's the few that are being judgemental that seem to be the loudest, but I would say the majority of the people in Walmart with you shopping they get it, they get that he's a kid, they get that you're a human and you're doing the best you can. So keep doing what you would be doing at home.
Tammy Afriat:So I think I stopped you in the middle of saying, we do prevention management. We do. In the house to see , what's leading to the behavior. And then we talked about as soon as we have the behavior, then we have some strategies that we already practiced when they were calm so please continue.
Dr.Erin Averitt:Yes., the prevention is huge. Building up those skills, and then in the moment is where you pull all of that together. So for , my middle son is now nine. When he was, gosh, when he was. Even one is where I really started working on building up his emotional vocabulary. and so I'd all the time I would say, You know, you are mad. You are frustrated. He was, really intense baby. Right now he's a really laid back kid, but he was just very intense about all things. And so I was always labeling his emotions. And I very clearly remember a moment when he was about two and he started to get really upset and I just said, Ooh, you're frustrated. And he went, I am frustrated. Thanks mommy. and just ran off and played and that that was all it took in that moment because we had been practicing it and he realized that he had the words to perfectly describe what he was feeling, and I understood. And that was enough for him in that moment. So pulling all of the things that you're working on and all the non tantrum moments into the very beginning of those tantrums is so important. So validating those emotions, maybe queuing them like, Ooh, you look really upset right now. Let's take a deep breath and hold a bubble in our mouth for a minute and blow it back. or giving them choices or helping them just to kind of move location of like, Ooh, like you do not wanna take this medicine right now, and I understand that. Let's go outside and get a deep breath and go outside, get some air, and then come back in and let's try again., so moving locations, giving choices, validating feelings, and giving them some calming down strategies in the moment are key.. Now if your kid does end up going to a Level 10 tantrum, then in those moments, all you can really do is be with them, keep them safe, and wait it out. So that's still gonna happen at times. All the other things that I'm talking about are gonna help prevent those moments from happening as frequently, but. you're still gonna have some tantrums and some meltdowns. And at the height of a tantrum, meltdown, there's not much you can do except be with them. Ride it out, try not to feed into it too much. So one mistake I see from parents a lot is trying to talk too much in those tantrums. So lecturing them, telling them to calm down, telling them to just stop. Right? That is only gonna make it worse. And when we get to that point to where we're at a, kind of red zone, high level tantrum, it will come back down. And one thing to tell yourself is this tantrum can't last forever. Like no person can stay in that heightened level of emotion for forever. It will come back down. So ride it out. And then after your child is calm again, is when you can talk about it together. And then you can say like, Woo. You were really upset. You were so upset. It seemed like you're upset because I asked you to get in the car and you didn't wanna get in the car. Okay, let's talk about that. Okay, so you actually got in mommy's face and yelled at me. That actually made me feel a little bit sad. I don't like to be yelled at in my face. Can we talk about that? And you can kind of talk through the tantrum together and talk about if they're, if they're older and their language skills are at this point, talk about what you can do differently next time when they're starting to feel upset
Tammy Afriat:So I like the idea of extending the, , emotional vocabulary, and you mentioned that as soon as you know, to label it,, it's kind of. taking all the air from the big balloon., they are filling and so they're just really relaxing, the ones they can recognize.
Dr.Erin Averitt:Yeah, I mean, you can think about it like you're at work and you're having a terrible day, like you didn't get your coffee, you were late, you got stuck in traffic, you got to work, and the document you've been working on got deleted and then your boss yelled at you, right? Like, You're having a terrible day and you talk to your colleague about it. If your colleague says like, Oh, don't worry about it. Don't be upset, you're fine. Just walk it off like you're gonna feel worse. But if your colleague says like, Oh, that stinks, that is a bad day. Like, Come here, gimme a hug. Or do you want me to go get you some coffee? You're instantly gonna feel better just because somebody else, recogniz. Your emotional state, and that's validating and that instantly makes you feel better. And the same is true of our kids. They want you to know how they are feeling, and so just recognizing and validating just how they are feeling and letting them realize that you know their emotional state and your empathetic towards it sometimes is enough , to help them feel better.
Tammy Afriat:So the dismissive of the emotion just make it even bigger while validating it actually, Decreasing the intense of the emotion. Right, does. I'm thinking about an example, which is not a meltdown. Like if my kid fell down and he comes to me and says, Oh mommy, this hurts, and I'm saying, Oh, that's nothing. It's just a little scratch., I remember with my daughter 11 years ago. Then she would scream, but once I say, Yeah, I get it really hurts. it really helped.
Dr.Erin Averitt:Yeah, absolutely. You are feeling or thinking something, right? So even if your knee hurts, like it, that's your state. My knee hurts. So if somebody tells you, no, your knee doesn't hurt, Causes a lot of dissonance. Like, well, it feels like it hurts, but what you're cognitively telling me is it doesn't, So I don't know what to do with that information. So it's the same of like, I feel really overwhelmed and angry right now, and somebody's telling you like, No, you don't. It's just a candy bar over it. That creates a lot of stress and dissonance. And especially when you're three, four, what do you do with that? It's.
Tammy Afriat:Yeah. They don't have the skills to process whatever they've been told. I get that. So is there any. Red flags that indicate that a child or parents need an extra support dealing with melt.
Dr.Erin Averitt:Yes. I would say part of it is age. So if your kid is 2, 3, 4, 5, kind of going into six meltdowns are very typical. And if that's really the main behavior that you're dealing with at that age, , it's a typical part of development. If you're moving into age seven or above, and still tantrums or meltdowns are a really big part of your day, that's a sign that there's something that your child is having a hard time maybe regulating and dealing with, and maybe some extra support would be helpful, if tantrums or meltdowns are lasting a really long time. So I'd say most, tantrums, meltdowns tend to resolve within 30 minutes and this is different based on every kid, but if. You're spending hours of your day in meltdown mode, especially for an older kid, that's a sign you might need a little bit more support. and then also if you have other behavioral concerns. So tant in meltdowns in and of themselves are not clinical., that's a normal part of child behavior, but if you have other concerns on top of that, so if your child is really struggl. Socially, or if they're struggling with other parts of their behavior or if they're struggling transitioning between any task that you ask them to do, , then that's also a sign that you might need to seek some extra support from a therapist, from your pediatrician, from a psychologist.
Tammy Afriat:Sleep issues
Dr.Erin Averitt:yeah, I mean sleep issues are always something to talk about with your pediatrician., you know, sleep cycles and kids working through naps in regular bed times in wake times, that is still a normal part of. Development and young kids. Some kids, it takes a while for , all of their rhythms to work out., but that is if it's a consistent concern where you're having a hard time getting your child to go to bed, stay in bed, and they're not rested in the morning, that's definitely a time to talk to your pediatrician. and unrested kid is definitely going to increase the likelihood of meltdowns and tantrums. We all become a little bit more dysregulated when we're retired, so there's definitely a correlation there between a tired kid, a hungry kid, and more meltdowns and tantrums.
Tammy Afriat:Yeah, I can totally see that. So I think we are about to finish and I know you have an online course that I want you to describe a bit more about that.
Dr.Erin Averitt:Yes. Yeah. So I am a child psychologist,, and my best friend, Dr. Jian and Emer is also a child psychologist. And we live in different parts of Texas. We've always wanted to work together, but we've never really lived in the same city., and a year or two ago, we started thinking about how we can help parents before they ever have to call the child psychologist. So we realized that there's a lot of recommendations that we give to parents that are, pretty consistent regardless. Age or the clinical issue for why the kid is coming in. There's a lot of foundational parenting skills that we really. All the parents in our practices to know. And really beyond that, we think it's helpful for all parents to know, even if you haven't needed to call the child psychologist yet. So then with the pandemic and everything, we were seeing less, patients in person. And I think the availability of online resources really started to increase,, which was a positive. So about a year ago, we started developing this parenting course, and then we filmed it last fall and we just released it. This. So it's about 90 minutes., we call it Parenting one oh one. Our business name is Mind and Child, and we give, , free resources through social media on Instagram and Facebook, but then we also have this video course parenting one on one. So it's about 90 minutes and it's 27 videos. All of them are under 10 minutes, most of them are under five. And we go through specific. So in a similar model of what I talked through today, where a big chunk of the strategies are prevention strategies. So what you need to be doing every day to help build up your child's skills and to meet their needs, which helps to prevent a lot of the negative behaviors that parents are worried about. And then we talk about specific skills to help curb negative behaviors, right? As you start to see them emerge. So right as we start to anticipate problems or start to see them, what can you do quickly to help kind of curb that and help your. Move on. And then we talk about specific strategies to use after. So after something happened after your child was maybe did something that was non-compliant or hit a sister or stole something from the grocery store, what do you do in those moments to help address the situation? So , it's about 90 minutes long it's something that you can watch on your phone, you can watch on your computer, you can listen into your car, podcast style., and then once you get it, you get lifetime access, so you can go back and watch it as many times as you want.
Tammy Afriat:That sounds really, really helped helpful. I think I'm going to hear it. I'm really curious to hear and to expand my own, , tool.. So thank you so much. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Dr.Erin Averitt:No, just thank you for having us on. We're, , loving, listening to your podcast and we're very thankful to you for providing this resource to parents.
Tammy Afriat:Well, thank you. For sharing your knowledge, and have a great day.
Dr.Erin Averitt:Thank you, Tammy. You too.
Tammy Afriat:Bye.
Dr.Erin Averitt:Bye.