The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically I

Teach Your Children Well 195

that arise with respect to the shifts or transitions that are

required throughout the day in your household (for exam-

ple, from sleeping to waking, getting dressed to eating

breakfast, eating breakfast to catching the bus, school to

home, free time to homework, and TV time to dinner or

bedtime). And of all the things Plan B does well, helping

your child suspend his emotional response to a problem so

that he can stay calm enough to think (separation of af-

fect) would be high on the list. Many children who have

difficulties with executive skills are also hyperactive

and/or inattentive, and, as described in Chapter 10, these

children may also be helped by medication.

Emotion Regulation Skills

As you read in Chapter 3, kids who have difficulties
regulating their emotions are often more irritable or anx-
ious than other kids. And, as you also read, irritability
and anxiety can make it hard for any of us to think
clearly under duress. There is a very strong tendency (es-
pecially in the United States) to use medication to re-
duce children’s irritability and anxiety, and for some
children medication is truly indispensable. But one rea-
son such medications are overused is that a lot of pre-
scribers don’t know about the pathways and haven’t
really gotten to the bottom of a child’s irritability or anx-