EMOTIONAL FREEDOM TECHNIQUES (EFT)
TAPPING FOR KIDS
Children are experiencing more stress at younger and younger ages. Even in the womb a child picks up the mother's stress – stress chemicals such as adrenaline and cortisol cross the placenta.
Young children may experience stress from:
disrupted homes, blended families, both parents working outside the home;
increased exposure to violence, both real and on the screen;
excessive screen time;
being over scheduled;
feeling pressured to perform or behave beyond their ability.
Common stress producers for teens (in addition to the above):
failing an exam
physical appearance
judgment or evaluation by others
unrealistic classroom demands
the future
problems with peers
problems with a boyfriend or girlfriend
any situation that threatens self-esteem
disagreements with teachers, parents or other adults (Feinstein, Secrets of the Teenage Brain, 2004, p.94)
The following quotes illustrate how some children view stress:
"Stress is when your father's moving halfway across the country, and you're staying here"
"Stress is when I don't see my parents cause they're working all the time."
"Stress is my parents fighting all the time."
"Stress is when you're having a rough time."
"Stress is pressure."
(Lewis, survey of children ages 6 – 12-years-old, Stress-Proofing Your Child, 1996, p.19)
"Every time we have to choose up sides for a game, they never pick me, even last. They don't want me on their team." (9-year- old)
"I can't never do the part with the take-away numbers. I did all the problems real fast and she put big red X's on them and said I wasn't trying. And I started crying inside but I couldn't because they would all see." (8-year-old) (Allen & Klein, Ready-Set Relax, 1996, p.3)
Negative Stress Impedes Learning, Memory and Performance
A child in a constant state of unmanaged stress is primarily focused on survival. "Continual emotional distress can create deficits in a child's intellectual abilities, crippling the capacity to learn" (Goleman, p.27). In addition to a general stressed state, specific events can create anxiety. In the classroom this often relates to performance anxiety. Most of us can recall a time when the anxiety felt before a test, presentation or other performance caused the mind to "go blank" and all our studying or rehearsing went out the window. When the anxiety passes, information and skills come flooding back.
It's normal to have a touch of apprehension and butterflies in the stomach before a test. This is the positive side of the stress curve that actually enhances performance. However, when the anxiety gets out of control and crosses to the other side of the curve, performance plummets. Recently a fourth-grader who had just finished taking a provincial math test said, "The worst part was dividing fractions. I got so anxious I thought I would faint." D'Arcy Lyness, at the Nemours Foundation of Pediatric Research, states "High anxiety disrupts students' concentration and results in low test scores" (Black, "Test Anxiety," American School Board Journal, June 2005).
When we are emotionally upset, we say we "just can't think straight". This is because unmanaged stress shuts much of the thinking brain down. Accompanying this are heart and brain patterns that create chaos in our brain's ability to process information.
Teaching children how to use Tapping whenever they feel overwhelmed, angry or sad is an incredible way to empower kids to help themselves.
It is easy, fast and extremely effective.
Please view this 6-minute video here to see how some schools are benefiting from bringing EFT into the classroom
Laura Thomas Hypnosis and EFT - Ottawa and Gatineau - offers hypnotherapy, hypnosis, EFT, and EFT for Kids. 5 PATH Hypnosis and 7 Path Hypnosis guides Laura Thomas Hypnotherapy practice.