Question
My four-and-a-half-year-old nephew gets upset and cries when he’s dissatisfied or unable to do something. How can I help him calmly accept challenges and come up with solutions?
Answer
Outbursts and crying are outward expressions of anxiety. Moderate short-term anxiety can be beneficial for a child’s growth, but long-term anxiety may lead to anxiety disorders. Therefore, it is important to appropriately alleviate the child’s state of anxiety. The method to alleviate a child’s anxiety is to satisfy their inner psychological needs, which is to understand and meet what they truly desire.