Disciplining Toddlers

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Yes, toddlers misbehave. This is one of the sad facts of life. You may come across days that it seems they are like this from the time they get out of bed until it?s time to go to bed that evening.
Punishment is ineffective when your child is at this young age. They are not able to connect their behavior to the punishment, which in turn makes them feel as if you?re just being unfair. Now you may be asking ?How Do I deal with my toddler?s bad behavior??

Distraction

Using the distraction technique is one that lots of parents do with their children not even thinking about it. You may have noticed that when your toddler was a baby if he went toward something they wasn?t suppose to or that was dangerous you would pick him up, say no then got his attention to something safe that he was allowed to play with. This could have taken a few times of doing this; however it did usually work eventually.

As babies become toddlers, many times we become overwhelmed by the mobility and expanding curiosity of the toddler that it is hard to stop and think about how she will take the punishment. An important fact to remember is toddlers have a hard time grasping the punishment as a consequence to their actions. So distraction is still a more effective technique.

Teaching Consequences

You should begin to introduce the punishment as a consequence if you have an older toddler, slowly ease in to it as he begins to understand the connection. Allowing toddlers to learn from their mistakes by the creating the punishment a direct consequence of the bad behavior.

For example, let’s say that your toddler gets Play Doh all over the floor. Instead of cleaning it up yourself and not allowing her to watch television, you could ask her help clean it up and take away him Play Doh for the rest of the day. This shows her that there are direct consequences of her actions, and he will be more likely to remember not to do it again.

Time Outs

The time out method can be used starting at about a year old. Just keep in mind, that it will be difficult to keep a child in one place for very long at this young age. A good rule of thumb is one minute of time out for each year of age.
The time out is more of a cooling off time more than a punishment for younger toddlers, it helps remove them from situation and helps them sit back and regroup. Helping him find a positive activity after the time out is over will help him get back on the right track

Positive Reinforcement

Perhaps the most important thing you can do toward disciplining your toddler is reinforcing him good behaviors. By doing this, you give him incentive to behave properly. And that can be much more effective than punishing bad behaviors.
Don?t think that you should buy your child something every time he does something positive. A simple Good job when his is doing things right like picking up after himself or sharing his toys, can boost his self-esteem also this encourages him to keep doing these positive things.

If the behavior is bad and you?re wanting to stop it another idea is to use a sticker chart. You can put a sticker on each day there is not the unwanted behavior. Then after he gets so many stickers offer a reward for an activity that he loves, maybe a trip to the park or play a favorite game uninterrupted. I bought a few games that were only played as rewards so it was a bonus to get to play those.

In many ways toddlers are still more babies then big kids so disciplining them can be tricky, Reinforcing the good behavior and enforcing the consequences for bad ones in a way they can understand will allow them to learn naturally from their mistakes. Lessons learned this way are often remembered the best.

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Posted by Tamara Wilson -Work at Home Mom to four children. She runs several websites helping moms with issues that may arise with their children Such as Teen anger and Depression as well as sharing information to help their babies learn Baby Sign Language. Visit Website

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