Tolerating Frustration in Childhood: Learning Tips

Learning to tolerate frustration can have direct and indirect bearing on learning. Thus, just as parents teach children to motivate themselves and work toward a goal, it is also important that they equip them with the ability to accept failure.

Emotional regulation skills allow children to respond appropriately to the emotions they experience in each situation. Emotional regulation involves frustration tolerance, anger management or the ability to delay gratification, as well as risk coping skills or the development of empathy. With the help of the experts at Psikids, this volume of emotions is helped to be controlled.

Meaning of frustration tolerance

Frustration tolerance is an emotional experience that occurs when a desire, a project, a need or an illusion cannot be satisfied.

Experts speak of low tolerance when a child does not tolerate that his desires are not satisfied immediately. Children usually exhibit this behavior in situations such as when a toy is broken or when an adult forbids a behavior.

Tolerance of frustration from infancy onwards

Growing up, children and adolescents must learn ways to manage the difficulties or obstacles they encounter. For example, children must learn to control waiting or bouncing back when a goal is not achieved. In addition, it is imperative that adults help children understand that there are things that are beyond their reach.

Tolerating frustration has a direct and influential relationship to learning. Just as parents motivate children and teach them strategies to achieve their goals, it is important that they also equip them with the ability to accept failure.

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If children learn to tolerate frustration, they will be able to deal positively with the different situations they face, both in adolescence and in adult life.

How to tolerate frustration

Tolerating frustration requires:

  • Learning to face problems and limitations. The child must be able to look for alternative solutions to those previously used. To achieve this, adults must teach them to identify the feeling of frustration when it appears.
  • Identify, understand and regulate the emotions they experience as a result of frustration, such as anger, sadness or disappointment. Children can learn to cope with adverse situations in a more positive way if they do so in a relaxed manner. Therefore, they should be taught to increase frustration tolerance through body relaxation.
  • It is also important for parents to teach their children when to ask for help, pointing out that they should try to find a solution first.