Teach Your Children Well 183are bothersome. So it’s often productive to teach a more
general set of phrases that can be applied across many
different situations. We adults greatly overestimate our
own vocabularies when it comes to articulating frustra-
tions. The truth is, we’re usually relying on just a few
reliable expressions. Phrases you might want to consider
teaching your child include “Gimme a minute,” “I can’t
talk about that right now,” “I need help,” “I don’t feel
right,” “This isn’t going the way I thought it would,” and “I
don’t know what to do.” Teaching these phrases looks ex-
actly the same as the “labels” phrase above. And it’s a
sure bet some gentle reminding will be necessary on these
phrases as well.
Mother: Jackson, how was your day at school?
Jackson: DON’T ASK ME THAT QUESTION?!!! SHUT UP!!!
Mother: Sounds like you can’t talk about that right
now.
Jackson: I CAN’T TALK ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW!
Mother: No problem, maybe you’ll be able to talk
about it later.How quickly will your child reliably use this new vo-
cabulary? Hard to say. But if this is the skill your child is
lacking, this is the way to teach it.