Positive discipline for toddlers: Juggling parenting a toddler is a ride full of emotions. It is as though they have endless energy, limited parental appearances, and the inclination to push the envelope at each turning bend, which upsets even the most understanding parents. Screaming, as much as it may be satisfying, is unhealthy to a child’s emotional well-being and erodes the parent-child relationship.
Individuals should not yell at their children, and this article will review helpful positive discipline strategies for use with toddlers.
Understanding Positive Discipline for Toddlers
Positive discipline is a child-rearing technique that does not include a punitive method. While teaching responsibility, emphasising self-esteem issues and parent-child relations is another. Key principles include:
- Kind and firm: Non-negotiation of some ways of behavior while still having affection and care for the person.
- Long-term goals: Employ methods different from direct commands and mandates and implement a values-oriented approach to society.
- Encouraging autonomy: Enabling children to make their own choices and suffer for those they make on their own.
- Mutually respectful relationships: Respecting the children and ensuring that the children will respect others.
Alternatives to Yelling
Screaming at a toddler as parents or guardians get overwhelmed by their actions is not always helpful. This could frighten children, deflating their self-esteem and discouraging the parent-child relationship.
More frequently, offering inducements results in more opposition or noncompliance than when a threat is used.
Here are some practical alternatives:
1. Setting Clear and Consistent Expectations:
- Be Specific and Concrete: Abstract notions are significantly beyond the cognitive ability of toddlers. For example, providing instructions rather than telling a child, “Be good,” leaves the child wondering what they should or should not do. For instance, you have such commands as ‘’Place the blocks in the bin” or “We must join hands when crossing the road.”
- Use Positive Language: Always use positive language when you have to ask your child something or make a request of them. When you want to tell your child not to run inside the house, tell them, “We should only walk in the house so that we will not knock over things.”
- Offer Choices (When Possible): Offering toddlers what one may consider good choices makes them strong and helps eliminate fights and power struggles. For example, “Which do you wish to wear,the blue or the red shirt?” or “Do you want to brush your teeth now before or after reading a book.” This practice is more effective when both options are viable for you.
- Establish Routines: The children need routine schedules because they comfort them and make them realize what they are supposed to do. Having a schedule for breakfast, dinner, or any other time of the day, or getting to bed or whatever it is, would reduce conflict and ease the change of one activity to another in children.
2. Using a Calm and Firm Tone:
- Lower Your Voice: Lower your pitch whenever you yell at your child. It might be helpful to have a slightly calming effect on you and your child.
- Get Down to Their Level: When addressing your child, ensure that you bend down to their eye level or make yourself at that level with your child. This elicits familiarity and makes them feel like you care about them and you’ve noticed what they are doing.
- Use Simple Language: Avoid taking long sentences when explaining something our toddlers need to understand. Also, the content should not be overly bright and cumbersome; in other words, it should not involve wordy descriptions.
3. Redirection and Distraction:
- Offer an Alternative Activity: If your child displays youthful misconduct, try to distract his attention to better behavior. For example, if they’re throwing toys, you can tell them it’s time to read, construct with soft blocks, or something similar.
- Use Distraction Techniques: Other forms of conduct modification can be accomplished by removing a stimulus that may prompt a particular behavior. You can tell the child something they haven’t heard about the surroundings, sing a song, or give them their favorite toy.
4. Active Listening and Validation:
- Acknowledge Their Feelings: # If you disapprove of a child’s actions, respect their emotions. For example: “I noticed you seem pretty unhappy that you cannot take one more cookie.”
- Reflect Their Emotions: One should say things like: ‘It appears you are annoyed’ or ‘You seem irritated,’ or one can say, ‘You seem so depressed now.’It shows them that you are listening and comprehending what they are saying.
- Offer Comfort and Support: Tell your child, ‘It’s okay to be sad.’ ‘If you are sad,you can hug, hold my hand or sit on my lap and cry.’
5. Planned Ignoring (For Minor Behaviors):
- When Appropriate: Applying planned ignorance can be helpful in cases where the child is attention-seeking, such as engaging in low-risk attention-seeking behavior. For example, irritability or slight temper tossing does not involve aggression like hitting things or people.
- How to Implement: It is essential to ignore the child –do not speak to or look at them- whenever your child performs undesired conduct. After that, you could start providing positive attention once the behavior ceases.
- Consistency is Key: One has to be sincere, or better still, consistent with this plan if it has to work. When you succumb, even once, it becomes the cue to behavior that does not suit you.
Example Scenarios:
Scenario: Your child is throwing toys.
- Instead of yelling: “You should not be throwing those toys right now!”
- Try: Children’s toys are for playing with on the floor. Instead let’s construct a tower with these blocks. This would include things like redirection and the use of positive language.
- Scenario: I can’t eat a cookie before dinner, and thus am having a tantrum, your child will say.
- Instead of yelling: “Stop crying! You’re being ridiculous!”
- Try: ‘I understand you are cross because you would like a cookie.” As you can see, the clock is almost pointing at six which is the time we eat a dinner. Let’s go set the table.” (Validation and redirection)
The main points to remember are that repeating takes time and is essential.
Fostering a Respectful and Cooperative Relationship
Developing a healthy bond with your toddler is very important in discipline when the child misbehaves. Here are some tips:
- Spend quality time together: They laugh, play, read books, or just be together as a family.
- Active listening: Show that you allow your child to be heard and comprehensively understood.
- Empathy and validation: Cheque your child’s feelings and provide reassurance even if he has been acting up. For instance, “ I understand that you are angry because you can not be allowed to eat the cookie.”
- Family meetings: Schedule family time often to enforce family standards and learn how to address issues together.
- Positive reinforcement: Choose a positive behavior from your child and praise it in detail. For instance, you can say, “I like it when you pick toys off the floor.”
Case Studies and Useful Advice
- Tantrums: Instead of getting angry with them, take your time to try to figure out why they are so upset (maybe they are hungry, tired, or frustrated).14 Support them and comfort them.
- Hitting: When your child hits, as in the innocence that follows, you say sternly, “Hitting hurts.” It’s not okay to hit.” Refer them to some activity that will be more helpful to all the present members.
- Refusing to eat: Often provide healthy foods and allow your child to select what they wish to take or eat. Do not rebel with your child when it comes to feeding times.
- Bedtime struggles: Aim at having a regular sleep schedule and try to follow it to the later detail as much as possible. Make the bedroom more serene and stress-free.
Remember:
- Be patient and persistent: Effecting positive discipline requires time and energy.17 Do not be disheartened if no positive changes are evident in a short while.
- Take care of yourself: Parenting can be stressful. See that you are also eating well and caring for your heart.
- Seek support: If you cannot perform well in any of these tasks, feel free to consult with other parents, a family member, or a therapist who could help you.
Conclusion
Therefore, positive discipline for toddlers is a process and not an event. Thus, if you follow these tactics and pay attention to strengthening the loving bond with your child, you will provide them with favorable conditions for the further development of personality and lifelong learning.
Disclaimer: It is a good general article but should not be used as a basis for professional advice. It is always essential to seek advice from a pediatrician or a child development specialist.
