Tapping Tips for Kids

Don White’s Happy Tapping is a fun way to learn all of the different tapping points:

Happy Tapping is lots of fun.

You can do it on your own – or with anyone!

Tap tap tap on the top of your head.

Tap tap tap do just what I said

Tap on you eyebrow just near your nose

Then the side of your eye where the hard bone grows

Now on the bone under your eye

Don’t poke your eye or you’ll make yourself cry!

Now under your nose – but over your lips

Tap tap tap with your fingertips!

Now under you bottom lip – but over your chin

Just on the bit where your chin goes in.

Now under your collarbone – but over your chest

Under the bump of the bone is best!

The last on the list is under your arm

To make sure you get it right –slap with your palm!

If you still don’t feel good – don’t go to bed

Start tapping again on the top of your head!

Here's an interesting approach by Mary Stafford from the EFT newsletter. To sign up for that biweekly newsletter click here

Dear Gary,

4 years ago I read an article in the newspaper by a school teacher who was very concerned about the great stress children are put under by the standardized tests required at the end of every year. The teacher who wrote the article was named Wendy Goodman; I looked her up in the phone book and called her.

The person who answered the phone said she was not the teacher who wrote the letter to the paper, but she was a teacher with 15 years experience who was so stressed this year that she was considering leaving teaching.

This was her first year teaching in South Tucson, a very poor part of town. She reported that the children were very stressed and said and did things to one another that distracted the class from the lesson she was teaching. She found it very hard to get the attention of the class back on the lesson.

I told her that there was a very simple version of EFT that she could use with her second graders that I called the EFT Shortcut for Children. There are only 4 points to tap (3 of which I got from the EFT video set "Steps Toward Becoming The Ultimate Therapist."

1. The top of the head

2. Slapping with an open hand across the collarbone points.

3. The inside of each wrist

4. The inside of each leg above the ankle.

Children frequently are able to benefit from EFT without doing the Set-Up so I didn't include it. I suggested she take her class thru the EFT shortcut before the standardized testing and whenever the class had been disrupted.

A month later I spoke to her and she reported that she had done as I suggested. She took the class thru the EFT shortcut before the standardized test. The next time that she announced a test to the class they all began tapping without her saying a word. She also reported that she found that when a student disrupted the class by doing something to another student, if she directed the class to go thru the same tapping process, then the class would settle down quickly and pay attention to the lesson being taught.

The following year she taught 3rd.grade. At the end of that year she called me to tell me that the principal took her aside and told her how happy he was with the gains that her students had made in the standardized testing. He said her class had done better than the other classes in the school. She also said that when parents came to her with problems with their children, she told them about the EFT shortcut tapping process. She also told the other teachers and taught them how to use this simple approach.

She is still successfully using the EFT shortcut with her classes and her children.

Mary E.Stafford, M.Ed.,LPC, EFT-Adv

Here's another one from the EFT newsletter, a rich source of ideas, information and encouragement. You can sign up for free at www.emofree.com

By Shannon Hendrix

I have had 2 remarkable successes in the past few days regarding my 12-year-old son. The first is in regard to his sports skills.

I had attempted EFT with my son and his friend on the way to a soccer game several months ago. I attempted to use the traditional set-up phrase, "Even though I have this problem ..." which didn't quite work with 2 overconfident adolescents! After their team lost the game and they had no individual accomplishments from that particular game, they both gave me the, "See, it didn't work, Mom" attitude.

However, recently my son was up at 6 am preparing for a tournament. He candidly spoke to me about his nerves and fears that he would "forget" the things he had been trained to do once he got on the field. (This team hasn't practiced together - they are a combination group from separate teams).

I called him to my bedside and he allowed me to quietly tap several points while he talked about the negative situations he was mentally picturing. He is usually quite confident and doesn't often admit insecurities in this way. I didn't use an "I'm still a really great kid" ending; I just tapped while he spoke his concerns.

That evening, he came home with a medal - his team had won the entire tournament and he had 5 goals (more than he had scored all season), 2 of which were spectacular crowd-pleasers as well as several assists!