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The turtle technique (or turtle tale) is commonly used in children with difficulties to control their impulses and emotions in the face of certain stimuli, but what is the so-called turtle technique? To answer this frequent question, do not hesitate to continue reading this article from Psychology-Online: the turtle technique: the story to work on self-control.
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Original text
- Improve self-esteem
- Causes a feeling of less vulnerability
- Easier to resolve conflicts
- Making better decisions
- Regarding self-instruction, we refer to that procedure in which the individual gives instructions or orders to himself, in order to regulate his own impulsive behavior.
- On the other hand, with regard to self- reinforcement, we refer to that procedure in which the individual offers himself, after performing a certain behavior, a series of reinforcements or positive consequences.
- Phase 1: the child must recognize his emotions and stop to think (getting into his shell), and breathe calmly in order to think of possible solutions. In order to simulate the shell, the child can also pick up his legs by encircling them with his arms, so that he is more gathered and protected by himself.
- Phase 2: hold the posture tense for about ten seconds.
- Phase 3: in this phase, the child should loosen the tension in his body, and relax until his body is completely relaxed.
- Phase 4: in the final phase it is in which the child should be congratulated for his effort and for his result. It's a good way to ensure a greater chance of increasing the occurrence of this self-controlling behavior. It is also important, at this stage, for the child to explain what made him feel angry and how he felt using the turtle technique.
- Curiel, P. (2017). Self-control and behavior problems in the classroom.
- Gómez, I., and Luciano, MC (1991). Self-control in children: an experimental study on two procedures in the acquisition of waiting behaviors. Psicothema , 3 (1), 25-44.
- Schneider, M., and Robin, A. (1990). The "turtle" technique: a method for self-control of impulsive behavior.
Thus, self-control is a skill that can be acquired over the years. Specifically, the most effective procedures commonly used to acquire self-control are: on the one hand, self-instruction procedures and, on the other hand, self-reinforcement procedures, or a combination of both.
Child psychology techniques
To acquire self-control behaviors in children, it is common to use techniques based on metaphors and children's stories adapted to the age of the individual, such as the turtle technique, the volcano technique, the Arturo bear technique, among others. Thus, metaphors and stories are a great tool to foster the possibility of change, both behaviorally and cognitively.
Tale of the turtle
The turtle technique begins with the story of the turtle:
Long ago, there was a beautiful young turtle named Clota. Clota had just started classes, she was precisely X years old (X equals the age of the child to whom the story is read). Clota did not like going to school too much, however, she preferred to stay at home to be with her little brother and her mother. He did not want to go to school to learn new things, he just liked to go jogging, playing, etc.
It seemed very difficult and tiring for him to solve cards, copy what the teacher wrote on the board and / or participate in activities with his other classmates. She also did not like to listen and attend to what the teacher explained, for her it seemed more fun to make noises imitating the sound of car engines, and she never remembered that she should not make those noises while the teacher spoke. Clota used to play pranks on her companions and pick on them. For this reason, going to school was a very difficult situation for Clota.
Every day when Clota was on her way to school, she told herself that she would behave in the best possible way to avoid messing with her classmates. But even if she promised all this to herself, it was very easy for her to get out of control by something and, in the end, she would always end up punished, getting angry and fighting. Thus, Clota had a very bad time, many times she thought “I am always getting into trouble, if I continue on this path, in the end I will end up hating the school and all the classmates and teachers”.
On one of his worst days, when he felt bad, he came across a wise old turtle, the largest he had ever seen in his life. It was a very large turtle in every way, it was more than 300 years old and as big as a mountain. Clota was a little scared, she was addressing the old turtle with a small and shameful voice. But after a short time, Clota realized that the gigantic turtle was very nice and friendly and, seemed to be willing to help Clota on her bad day.
Then the old tortoise said to Clota: “Hey! You know what? I will tell you a little secret that will help you: the solution to solve your problems is carried with you, on top of you ”. Clota did not understand him, and she looked at him expressing that she did not understand anything with her curious look. “Your shell is the solution! Don't you know what your shell is for? " Clota kept looking at him with the face of knowing more. “ The power of your shell is that you can get inside it and hide as long as you have feelings like rage, anger, etcetera. So, for example, you can hide whenever you feel like breaking things, screaming, hitting something or someone, among others. When you hide inside your shell, you can take advantage of that moment to rest, andWait until I am not so angry. That's why I recommend that the next time you get angry, get into your shell. "
Clota thought it was a very good idea. She was very happy and wanted to try it and, thus, try to control her anger at school. The next day of class, he already practiced it, when suddenly, one of his classmates accidentally hit him on the back. At that moment, Clota began to get angry, so much so that she almost lost her papers and hit him back. But suddenly, he remembered the wise advice of the old turtle. Then he scooped up his arms, legs, and head inside his shell as fast as he could and stayed there until the anger subsided.
Clota realized that it was a very good idea, since she loved being able to be so well inside her shell, where no one could disturb her. When he came out of there, he was astonished to see that his teacher was looking at him with a big smile on his face, happy and proud of what Clota had done.
So he decided to keep using that trick for the remainder of the year. She used it every time a partner or something bothered her, but she also used it when she felt like hitting or arguing. After a while, he always managed to act this way, a very different way than he acted before. She felt very happy and proud of herself and all her classmates admired her for how she did it and they were very curious to know what her secret was.
Turtle technique
The turtle technique is one of the impulse control techniques to educate boys and girls and change misbehavior.
The turtle technique was devised and created by Marlene Schneider, in order to promote self-control behaviors to alleviate the impulsive behaviors of children in the classroom.
In order to capture the children's attention in terms of the turtle technique, it is recommended to tell them a story (like the one you will find in the previous section), in a children's story format adapted according to the age of each child.
The idea is that, through the story of the turtle, the children feel identified with the small and young turtle, so that they can extrapolate the resolutive behavior of the turtle to their daily situations in the classroom and, be able to control their own actions, disruptive emotions and feelings. That is why it is important to emphasize to them, at the end of reading the story, that when they feel angry or upset, wanting to yell, hit, etc., they can do the same as they did to the little turtle.
Thus, it is a metaphorical emotional self-control technique, in which the turtle is the character that represents the situation in which the children find themselves. Specifically, the turtle or turtle tale technique is composed of four phases:
In the following article you will find other strategies to control anger in children.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Turtle Technique: a story to work on self-control, we recommend that you enter our category of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.
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