Important things to keep in mind when disciplining your child and still make you feel like you are doing a good job as a parent.
When you are trying to decide what discipline techniques work best for you and your child you may want to consider the following points:
- · Make sure it is suited for your toddler’s developmental stage and disposition.
- · It should leave your toddler feeling good about him or herself.
- · It should leave you feeling good about your ability as a parent.
- · Choose one that is effective in teaching your toddler what is appropriate behaviour.
- · It should also help build a bond between you and your toddler.
There isn’t just one method of discipline that will work for every child or even just for your child. You will probably find that you will use a different method for different situations and you may have to return to the drawing board every once in a while to figure out new techniques that will be more effective. There are lots of methods to choose from but here are some top ones that tend to work the best:
- · Avoid having to discipline at all by preventing problems from occurring in the first place. For example, put things they aren’t allowed to touch out of reach and run errands during their best time of the day to avoid meltdowns. You can’t head off all problems but it is worth it if you can scale it down a bit.
- · Try to avoid saying “no.” When a toddler hears that word sometimes that alone will send them into a tailspin. Find good alternative phrases, for example, instead of saying “No throwing food,” try, “Food is for eating.” Also try using high-impact words like “hot,” “stop” or “dirty” instead of “no.” It is more specific and avoids that word.
- · Provide a substitute for what they aren’t allowed to do. For example, if your toddler is coloring on the fridge, let them do something similar, like draw on a piece of paper on the fridge, play with fridge magnets or draw a picture of the fridge.
- · Cause a distraction when your toddler is about to do something not so great. For instance, if you toddler is about to dump her hand into the fish tank in an attempt to pat the goldfish, offer him or her a stuffed animal to pat, scoop him or her up and tickle or sing a song. Offer something more exciting than what they were about to do.
- · Offer your toddler the opportunity to make a choice. They can brush their teeth before or after bedtime story, they choose.
- · Allow the opportunity for them to experience natural consequences of his or her actions. If you throw your cookie on the floor, it has to go in the garbage.
The copyright of the article Top Toddler Discipline Methods in Infants & Toddlers is owned by Tanya Campbell. Permission to republish Top Toddler Discipline Methods in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
