5 Tips for Conquering Demons

TAGteach offers a tool for parents, teachers and coaches to help overcome fears and anxieties that inhibit progress. The fear and anxiety demons come in many forms:

• Fear of failure
• Fear of injury
• Fear of embarrassment
• Fear of the unknown
• Fear of ridicule
• Fear of disappointment

If you are a teacher, coach, parent, or someone who has ever tried something new, difficult or scary, you can probably add to this list. Some fears can impact health (fear of injections, fear of the doctor or dentist), some can impact daily living (fear of failure at simple tasks, fear of driving or riding the bus, fear of dogs) and there are many other examples of fears that slow or impede progress at school, sports and other areas of life.

There are some fears that we can all understand (fear of injections, fear of jumping off a 10 meter diving platform) and some fears that seem unfounded to most of us (fear of trying to tie shoes or fear of trying to hit a golf ball). As teachers, coaches or parents it is often our job to help someone else succeed despite the presence of a fear demon. 

TAGteach can be an effective tool for helping to learners to progress past their fear. Here are five tips for reducing fear based on the TAGteach approach:

1. Start from a point of success. This is something that the learner can already do confidently. It could be as simple as pointing to a picture of the fear object, or making an observation while watching someone else perform the scary feat. Create a tag point based on this point of of success.
2. Consult with the learner about the tag point.
3. Have the learner tag you, or someone else who can demonstrate (if possible).
4. Increase difficulty in tiny increments. Go back to an easier task if the learner seems worried.
5. Build confidence by working to fluency for each component of the task.

Here is an example. TAGteacher Sara McLoudrey discovered that her preschool son was terrified of the dentist. Rather than hold him down, or sedate him (as some parents are advised to do), Sara decided to use her TAGteach skills to teach him to cooperate at the dentist. Sara started with something her son could already do without being afraid, walking on the sidewalk outside the dentist office. She did not even try to open the door until she had fluency with walking up to the door. Meanwhile Sara worked at home, tagging her son for looking at dentist pictures and playing dentist games. Her son eventually progressed to getting willingly into the dentist chair to allow the dentist to count and then examine his teeth. Now three years later the fear has not returned and he still cooperates willingly with the dentist.

Here is a video showing an early session with tag points related to touching elements in photos of the dentist office:

If you are interested in finding out more about using TAGteach to reduce fear and anxiety in learners, please join us for a Webinar on Feb 12, 2013 (available after that date as a recording).

TAGteach Webinar: Using TAGteach to Reduce Fear

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TAGteacher Spotlight - Sara McLoudrey

Congratulations to TAGteacher Sara McLoudrey for becoming our most recent Certified Level 2 TAGteacher! Thanks to Sara for sharing the story of her journey with TAGteach.

I was first introduced to TAGteach in 2008 at Clicker Expo.  That summer I was lucky enough to attend my first TAGteach seminar in Chicago.  After the first day my life was changed!  That night I went home to my then almost 3 year old who was not wanting to go to bed.  First step was getting him upstairs.  I started tagging any movement towards the stairs.  Then he got tagged for every stair he went up.  By the time he was tucked in it was the most uneventful bedtime routine for months.  I was sold!  

Over the next few months I worked with my son, a few client’s children, and my dog training students.  One of my favorite training sessions was teaching a client’s 6 year old how to skip.  Literally in one tag she was skipping, she was shocked, her mom was shocked and was so excited - it worked!  That fall my father passed away and I really wanted to read something at his memorial service.  I remember calling Theresa and saying I had an idea to TAGteach it with back-chaining.  She was very supportive and asked if I would videotape it.  I did, and most importantly I was able to read the piece at the service.  I used my tagulator during the reading to help keep me on track.  While attending my second TAGteach seminar in Boston in October of 2008 I decided to use TAG to tackle my biggest problem facing me and my son - going to the dentist.  

We started by tagging very simple things at home like opening your mouth and playing with the Playdough dentist.  The first visit to the actual office it took him over 15 minutes to get into the front door of the waiting room.  He would panic and bolt or stop moving out of fear.  We eventually did 10 visits, over 6 months - 9 by himself and 1 to watch Dad go to the dentist - before he was willing to try actually seeing the dentist.  The first visit with the dentist he sat on my lap and the dentist only wanted to count his teeth.  It was a success!  For the next 6 months we continued to work on skills at home but we did not visit the office.  Time came for his next check up he had an actual complete visit.  He sat in the chair by himself, had his teeth polished, flossed, counted and fluoride treated.  You could see his stress at times but he was able to do it all - independently!  I was not sure if this day would ever come.  One year after we started, with only 11 visits we had a child who was not terrified by the dentist.  Hopefully I have laid the foundation for a lifetime of healthy dental habits.  

More dentist videos on YouTube

In addition to using TAGteach with my son I use it to teach competition obedience handler skills in my dog training classes.  With one client we were able to change 25 years of footwork to new footwork more suitable to her current dog.  Recently I have started a Self Tagging Blog to share a few Self Tagging Projects.  I can’t imagine my life without TAGteach!  It makes my teaching easier, it makes being a mom easier and I feel I can tackle almost any problem!  I am honored to be called a TAGteacher.    


Visit Sara's Facebook Page
Visit Sara's blog
Visit Sara's website

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Dentist Saga Update #2

We have been following with great interest the saga of Callan and the dentist. This 3-year old was terrified of going to the dentist and his mother Sara did not want to use force. She discovered TAGteach and began the stepwise process of teaching Callan to overcome his fears. They started by touching photos of the dentist's office and equipment, interacting with a Playdoh dentist and with mouth opening games. Then they moved on to visiting the dentist's office and touching the door, eventually going in to the waiting room and even sitting in the dentist chair. One one of these visits Callan actually caught a glimpse of the dentist himself!

Sara has videotaped much of this process and we are grateful to her for sharing this journey so that we can all learn from it. We know how much effort it takes to get video, let alone deal with a fearful child, tagger and treats all at the same time!

Here is the first video in the series of actual visits to the dentist's office:



Here is the ninth video in the series in which Callan actually sits in the dentist's chair, laughs while the dentist looks at his teeth and chats happily with the dentist.



To see the other videos in the series, visit Sara's YouTube channel.

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Dentist Saga Update

I posted a link to a video in a previous blog post about a preschooler afraid of the dentist. His mother has been using TAGteach to help him overcome this fear. There are several videos in this series that you can see at YouTube. Here is the third dentist visit, which shows that huge strides have been made since the first visit, when the child was clearly terrified and was wary even of approaching the door. Now he goes right in and sits in a chair in the waiting room.

To see this video at the YouTube site and thus be able to see all the other videos in the series, click on the YouTube logo on the bottom right of the video screen.

Thanks to Sara and Callan for setting a positive example and sharing their adventures. For more of Sara's videos visit her YouTube site.

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TAGteach Videos

Check out these cool TAGteach videos. There are more posted at YouTube as well.



Tagging writing skills:




Learning to read a passage for a memorial service without crying:



A child gets over his fear of going to the dentist (this is the first in a series):

Thanks to Sara and Callan for setting a positive example and sharing their adventures. For more of Sara's videos visit her YouTube site.

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