Children can train their 'inner chimp' says top sports psychiatrist

You can train a child’s ’inner chimp’ according to a psychiatrist who has helped top athletes get their head in the game - coming up with 10 habits parents and early years practitioners can teach children to help them control their emotions and behaviour.

Credit: Edith Butter/ Shutterstock Professor Steve Peters, the author of ‘The Chimp Paradox’ which sold a million copies, has written a new book called ‘My Hidden Chimp’ aimed at equipping children with the skills of mind management.

Written for children between the age of two to 11-years-old, the book is best read with an adult. By explaining the developing 'chimp' brain in children, the science behind habits such as 'Saying Sorry' is discussed with activities which children can do with adult guidance.

Professor Peters has worked with cyclist Sir Chris Hoy (before he won his six gold Olympic medals) and Sir Chris Hoy says "without Steve I don't think I could have brought home triple gold from Beijing".

Professor Peters says: “As a doctor I dealt with mental illness, but I found that when people came through the door some of them weren’t mentally ill, they just didn’t know how to manage their own minds. The model I’ve introduced is also about accountability, all of us struggle with our mind, they’re not built to always be on our side.

“I wrote this book because of the popular demand for a book that mirrored 'The Chimp Paradox' for children. It’s written in a style that gives an explanation of the neuroscience of the mind so that children can understand it for themselves."

The professor who has even worked with the England football team on penalty shoot outs, adds: "I’ve chosen 10 habits that teachers, parents and guardians have asked me to try and instill which are really constructive for young children.

"For example, teaching children to be “effective apologisers” when something has gone wrong, this they can then take into adult life.”

Credit: My Hidden Chimp

The 10 habits are:

1. Smiling

2. Saying sorry

3. Being kind to someone

4. Talking about your feelings

5. Asking for help

6. Showing good manners

7. Trying new things

8. Accepting when ‘no’ really means ‘no’

9. Learning to share

10. Doing what you have to do.

The Human, the Chimp and the Computer

Don't let your chimp embarrass you in the supermarket. Credit: My Hidden Chimp

Professor Peters' made up the concept of an inner chimp, to translate the neuroscience of what’s happening in a person’s brain into the simplistic idea of a primeval chimpanzee, who if let loose would unleash the irrational, emotional side to dominate their behaviour.

He describes key parts of the brain as a ‘Computer’, the ‘Human’ and the 'Chimp'. The Human (he says sits in the brain's frontal lobe) is a thinking, analysing being that works with facts and makes deductions using logical thinking.

The Chimp (occupies the amygdala; an emotional centre in the limbic part of the brain and is in charge of the automatic response of fight, flight or freeze reactions). The Chimp works with feelings and impressions and uses emotional thinking.

The Computer is located in many parts of the brain but is at the disposal of the Human and Chimp.

Unhelpful thinking

Children are encouraged to draw a picture of their chimp. Credit: My Hidden Chimp

He advises 'unhelpful thinking' and habits can be changed including being overly self-critical, fear of failure, worrying, overreacting to situations and low self-esteem. Helpful habits that can be learnt include getting over mistakes, talking through feelings and being proactive.

The companion book for parents and early years practitioners to ‘My Hidden Chimp’ is called ‘The Silent Guides’. It explains: ‘In children, the Human is very underdeveloped and cannot programme the Computer well, so the Chimp is poorly managed’. It adds: 'We all get hijacked by our Chimps but must accept responsibility for this. For a child, this is particulary difficult because by accepting responsibility we are saying that we will try to avoid this situation happening.'

Let children give their chimp a name

Not letting your chimp rule. Credit: My Hidden Chimp

The book 'My Hidden Chimp' helps children learn how to say sorry by making them see that the human in them wants to say sorry but the chimp inside them must be controlled. It advises children can give their chimp a name and 'Let your chimp know that you are in charge and you will say sorry.'

Early years staff and parents are advised that being the human to a child's chimp is key for the adult with them. One way to help a child programme their 'inner computer' to play a game to spark the response sought.

Go through scenarios the child is likely to encounter e.g. acting silly and not listening. Getting them to guess what people might do in scenarios can become a game. Take them through the steps of what you will say and how they will respond and discuss what they've learned - aids such as cartoons depicting accidents etc, can help to programme the child's computer and train their chimp.

One of the Professor Peters' 10 habits involves making children feel happier by simply smiling. 'The Silent Guides' book states: ‘A game or exercise to teach children about these ideas is to get them to make facial expressions that will evoke feelings in them'. So you can ask them to make a angry face and a smiling face etc. 'When you ask the child how they feel when they make this face, they will often say they feel like the face.’

If a child is told to try new vegetables, the chimp may say 'I don't like them they look horrible'. But the child can reprogramme their thinking to say 'Sorry, that was my chimp Megan, I will try them.'

Mum 'blown away' by how everything made sense

One reader, Mike Holt said of the ‘The Silent Guides’: "I started with the 'Chimp Paradox' book which helped me understand how my brain can sometimes effectively be hijacked in a manner which I do not want.

"Understanding that allowed me to start to manage that better, at least some of the time. I wish I'd had access to it as a child. (I suspect my parents would have benefited too if we could have worked through it together).”

Mum Emma Evans writes in a review of 'My Hidden Chimp': “I was absolutely blown away by how much everything made sense in terms of my kids (and my own) behaviour.

“I bought the book for my little boy and we have been going through it every night."

She added: "I can already see a difference in how he responds to situations. He has a toy chimp that he now uses to demonstrate the different parts of his brain! Our aim is to try and nurture and train him.”