Anger Management Activities for Teenagers Who Lack Social Skills

Anger management is an essential tool for rehabilitating troubled teens. In fact, a lack of anger management coincides with poor social skills -- often resulting in difficulty at home, in school and in professional situations. Teaching anger management activities for children who lack social skills is a necessary means of transforming a problematic child into a functioning adult.

Causes

• Broken homes or traumatic events are direct causes of anger management problems and social skills inadequacies in teenagers. According to the Miami Valley TechPrep Consortium, child abuse, parental disputes, divorce, lack of financial stability and drug abuse are the major factors that contribute to a child's stress level. Teens who undergo rough circumstances in the home translate their stress and anger in public. Many teens are ill-equipped to handle the academic and behavioral requirements of high school, for example, when they can't control their anger.

Reading

• Presenting teens with various written examples of behavioral problems puts them in a physically quiet and restful state. The physical relaxation and quiet help pacify the teen, resulting in an increased level of concentration. Ask teens to read a series of different examples in which children their age are behaving poorly in various situations. Discussing the reasons why the teen in the example may be angry, why his anger is harming him or others around him, and better ways to deal with the posed situation get teens to use their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Interactivity

• Talking about anger management in large groups can also reduce the stress of a troubled teen feeling singled out because of his poor behavior issues. For example, engage the group of teens in a discussion about what makes each of them angry. Have each child write at least one reason on a chalk board. Identify physical areas in the body the child feels pain when experiencing anger and ask teens to offer suggestions to one another for coping with the problems. Interactivity exercises, such as this one, promote the understanding that anger is normal and managing it doesn't make you weak or inferior.

Relaxation

• Teaching relaxation techniques provide teens with hands-on tools for maintaining a level head in social situations. Encourage each child to determine what helps him "chill" -- listening to music or deep breathing, for example -- to develop a plan of action for relaxation when anger arises. Constantly remind the teens that progression with relaxation techniques shows maturity, character, and respect for self and others.