Children respond significantly to the amount of tension you are carrying in your response to what they are doing. Children react to pheromones. All humans do. If we want children to behave appropriately or take charge of themselves, we must get in touch with what we are experiencing ourselves. We must become focused and calm.
Children are like little radar detectors.
Think back to a time you were emotional and upset. A child may jump up and cause alot of disruption or the child may stay close to you and try to snuggle in. This is an attempt to either cause a diversion from the emotions the you maybe locked into or give you comfort by staying close, thus comforting themselves in the process. Often, as adults, we try to hide how we feel from our children or even from ourselves. We have an element of non-verbal communication going on at all times whether we mean to or not.