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The Kid Should See This

Cookie Monster Practices Self-Regulation

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Sometimes it’s hard to stay calm and resist impulses, like not eating giant, fresh, warm cookies on a plate. They’re just waiting to be eaten. Looking melty. Smelling delicious. How can we wait? And how can kids (and adults) learn and practice self-regulation?

NPR Life Kit: Parenting offers some helpful strategies. In this video, Raising Awesome Kids podcast hosts Cory Turner and Anya Kamenetz work with Cookie Monster to demonstrate how to delay gratification: Take deep belly breaths, talk about a book you’ve read, sing a song, or focus on the reason you’re waiting.


And their podcast guests Rosemarie Truglio of Sesame Workshop and Kentaro Fujita of The Ohio State University offer additional tools: Channeling heroes—what would Rey or Black Panther do?—and remembering that “self-regulation as a skill that can be learned and practiced, like skiing or baseball.”

learning how to wait
Brandy Wells has additional self-regulation strategies on PBS.org.

Watch this next: Cookie Monster’s food-related “showerthoughts” at the museum, 5 Hidden Worlds Revealed Under a Microscope (with Telly!), and 5 Fun Science Experiments for Kids (w/ Grover!).

Plus: The Benefits of Boredom, How to Forgive, and how to change anxiety into excitement.

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