When angry, bunny hurts himself

WRITTEN BY EXPERTS IN CHILD PSYCHOLOGY

Little rabbit lived on a big farm full of animals. One day he was looking for someone to play with, but all his friends seemed to be already in the middle of a game or wanted to play alone. Rabbit was persistent, but it turned out that everyone rejected him that day. He felt disappointed and sad, and very soon he was overwhelmed with so much anger that he hit a tree with his paw and hurt himself. Fortunately, a wise owl saw everything and helped the bunny cope with unpleasant emotion of anger in a way that doesn’t hurt him or anyone else around him.

This story is part of therapeutic picture book series about anger in children. It deals with the problem of expressing anger through auto-aggressive behaviour or self-harm.

Anger belongs to so-called – basic emotions. Basic emotions appear in all cultures and can be seen in babies from birth. By the end of the 6th month of life, child expresses all four basic emotions (anger, fear, happiness and sadness).

Anger is an emotion extremely focused on others, it can be very strong and intense, and it seeks to be expressed “outwardly”. It manifests itself through changes in the body which encourage tension and more impulsive behaviors. As it is much easier to notice a child’s behavior than his emotions, adults are often not aware that behind unwanted behavior are a child’s unfulfilled emotional needs.

Very often, children don’t know how to recognize and process feelings of anger or frustration, which results in aggressive behaviour. Some children will turn the aggressive behavior towards themselves. They will intentionally injure themselves. For example, a child can hit his head with his hands, pull his hair, bite himself, hit his head on the floor or wall. In a milder form, auto-aggression manifests itself as nail biting or pinching and scratching oneself. In that situation, adults should send two important messages to the child: it is okay to feel angry, but it is not okay to behave aggressively towards yourself.

The story helps children to recognize and name their own emotions, work through stressful situations and satisfy the need behind the emotion of anger.

Book also contains guidelines and advice for parents and caretakers that will help them better understand child’s behaviour, teach him to manage his behaviour and self-regulate unpleasant emotions.