Children at the anger management workshop at the Crossword bookstore. (Anindya Shankar Ray)

● Six-year-old Saira Dua doesn’t cry or throw tantrums like other children. She just goes quiet and refuses to react until her parents rush to fulfil her wishes. “That’s her way of manipulating others,” said her mother. “She knows she can’t get her way all the time by just throwing tantrums.”

● Saif Barry, also six, hits people when he is angry. “He takes out his frustration on our domestic help and those he knows won’t protest,” said his mother.

If you thought uncontrolled anger was an “adult” prerogative, think again. Children are equally prone to wrath. A recently-conducted workshop for kids sought to address this by teaching participants how to regain control of their emotions when anger strikes.

Saira and Saif were just two of the 24 kids below 12 who attended the anger management workshop from May 18 to May 20 at the Crossword bookstore on Elgin Road. The event was conducted by voluntary organisation Magictouch, in association with TTIS, as part of a summer camp.

“In the last five years, I have come across more children banging their head against walls or throwing things in rage than before,” said family counsellor and physician Kanchan Gurtu. “Previously, they could be calmed down, but these days, they are often unmanageable. This is a harmful trend. Sometimes kids can’t even understand why they are angry — or even what anger is, in the first place. So an anger management workshop should involve parents and teachers too, who can make the kids understand.”

The children were first taught to identify the emotion of anger. All of them raised their hands when asked if they ever experienced headaches or heaviness when hurt, scolded or ignored.

The kids were next taught to associate various stages of anger in a way that all of them could relate to. Each stage of anger was compared with the feeling of a particular bird sitting on top of their head. The children were told how they could make the birds disappear — through songs, dance and yoga. They were also taught the importance of cultivating a feeling of nonchalance when they did not get what they wanted, a favourite toy, for instance.

Shobha Ginodia, a primary school teacher at Delhi Public School, Ruby Park, who attended the workshop, said: “Every day, we handle many children who are prone to fits of anger. The cause behind their behaviour is lack of enough attention at home. I am here to learn how to manage them better.”

Unless anger management starts early, it could lead to more teenage violence and suicides in the near future, felt psychologist Fuljhuri Basu, who attended the event along with her child.

Since 2006, there has been a rise in the number of parents approaching her with their teenage children showing behavioural problems, she said.

“Children have a lower patience level and are less compassionate these days,” said Basu. “More and more of them exhibit an inner cruelty that is quite disturbing. All this manifests in anger, which can assume dangerous proportions as a child grows up. So anger management classes should be held from the pre-primary stage to check such volatile tendencies.

Many pre-schools expressed eagerness to conduct such activities. Mita Walia, the academic manager (eastern zone) of Roots to Wings, a pre-school chain, said: “I’d love to conduct such workshops for my students. But it should be more than a three-day affair. One needs to channelise their misguided emotions through such workshops.”