Author’s practical guidance
Giggles or hides every time a body word comes up
Source named in the book: temperament and reactivity (Rothbart)
Some children meet these words with a shriek and a run for the sofa, and it looks like embarrassment arriving early.
Say this now
“It's a funny word to you today. It's still the name of that part.”
Accepts the reaction, keeps the fact.
“You can laugh. I'll keep going.”
Permission plus continuation. That is what defuses it.
Do this
- Carry on talking through the giggle rather than pausing for it.
- Use the words more often, not less, until they are as dull as "knee."
- Choose low-stakes moments — dressing, the bath, a book — not a sit-down conversation.
- Let them leave the room if they want to. Do not call them back to finish.
- Watch your own face first. Most of the charge in the word came from an adult.
Avoid this
- "Why are you being silly? It's just a word." Tells them their reaction is wrong, which adds a second problem.
- Dropping the subject every time they laugh. That is the reward, and it works.
- Making it a lesson with a serious face and a chair.
If it repeats
Exposure in small ordinary doses is what settles this. If the reaction is distress rather than hilarity — real upset, freezing, wanting it gone — the last block of this book covers that.
Why the book suggests this
Some children meet these words with a shriek and a run for the sofa, and it looks like embarrassment arriving early. Usually it is reactivity — a temperament that answers anything charged at high volume, and body words are charged because the adults around them are.
It matters because the giggling makes adults stop talking, and stopping is the one response that guarantees a repeat. The words stay charged precisely as long as they stay rare.
From this collection
Same Words: Their Own Body
45 prepared situations in this family area.