[Free Printable] Anger Ladder Chart and Activity

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Recommended age: 5+

Includes: 2 PDF pages

Download here or at the end of the post

Use: As an educational tool and activity to teach the different types of anger.

Will enhance social and emotional skills:

• Self Awareness: Identify own feelings and emotions

• Self Management: Emotional regulation

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Due to the popularity of my other printable activities (Discover Your Child's Personal Values, Solving Problems Together), I would like to share an Anger Ladder Chart I developed for my psychotherapy practice.

I use this directly with children to teach them about the different levels of anger and to explore their personal experiences with it.

This chart is also given to parents and educators to use with their children, as the chart can create quality time on learning and having dialogue about anger together.

Since anger can be a difficult topic for children to talk about, I designed this specifically to be engaging and fun for them. And of course, easy for parents and facilitators to use.

I took a thoughtful approach on defining each of the five anger feelings, which includes Annoyed, Upset, Frustrated, Angry and Furious.

Each are different in their own way, from what can trigger these feelings as well as how they manifest in children. The feelings are based on psychology and child development literature as well as my own experience working with children and families.

In the "How it feels" section, I included how each feeling is experienced in the mind and body. Since feelings are experienced holistically, it is important to not just describe how they manifest in our minds but also in our bodies.

In fact, one of the best ways for children to learn about their feelings is how they experience them physically.

Calm vs. Happy

Before we dive into the chart, the question I receive often is why did I use calm instead of happy as baseline?

Calm signifies a neutral state. Most children's neutral state is a pleasant and calm mood. I find it more problematic if we tell children their neutral state should be happy, which sets the wrong expectation, as it implies they should feel happy most of the time.

For example, if we look at feelings on a spectrum, in the category of anger, if one end is furious, then the other end is excited. Calm is right in the middle.

It will look something like:

• Furious

• Angry

• Frustrated

• Upset

• Annoyed

• Calm (Neutral)

• Glad

• Happy

• Inspired

• Hopeful

• Excited

Therefore, other suggested words to describe a neutral state to children are: calm, content, relaxed, peaceful.

How to use the chart

Purpose

• To teach children the different levels of anger.

• To expand self awareness of their experience of anger.

Angry Ladder Chart

Page one is The Angry Ladder Chart. It is best used as a reference tool to learn and discuss about the different types of anger.

Before you begin, have your goal in mind on what you would like to achieve with your child or group.

Example goals: Teach them different levels of anger, have them discuss how anger is expressed by other children around them, have them discuss how they experience anger and what triggers them.