Some healthy tips for disciplining your preschooler

Encouraging your toddler’s independence while setting down a few firm boundaries to better their behavior can be an interesting balancing act. Managing temper tantrums and power struggles in healthy and productive ways is always the end goal. Here’s a few proven techniques that will help Mom and Dad stop their little one from engaging in behavior that is aggressive, inappropriate, or even downright dangerous to themselves or others.

Many experts start educating parents on the healthy ways to discipline toddlers by pointing out what not to do. They suggest you start by developing a template where you define what’s important, set suitable limits and then follow through with a series of appropriate consequences. You also need to decide which behaviors can be overlooked since your child is likely to outgrow them anyway.

Stay Calm

One of the best things you can do is keep your emotions in check. You need to always keep in mind you’re dealing with your child and not another adult and never lose your vantage point over a two year old who has just refused to wash their face for the tenth time. Take a deep breath and get down to your child’s eye level, but don’t lose your temper—yelling will only escalate the situation and add to the entertainment value for your child.

Avoid Problems Before They Start

Heading issues off at the pass works wonders too. Although it’s a bit of a short circuit when it comes to actually learning how to discipline your child, understanding their triggers is important and necessary. Stopping a toddler who loves to pull items off the grocery store shelf might be as easy as bringing along some favorite toys so you can get the shopping done and save the discipline for another day.

When you decide to correct their behaviors, consistency is a key you can’t afford to overlook. Experts in child behavior say that while they are always looking to their parents for signals on what and what isn’t acceptable, this is especially true between the years of two to three.

Set Guidelines

Allowing your little boy to run through the house one day and then reprimanding him for it the next will only confuse him. It’s better to take a few moments to decide on the best reaction and stick with it. There’s really no strict guidelines for how many times you’ll need to repeat the procedure before it takes hold, but many parents see results after four or five repetitions.

Finally, it’s best if you keep things short and sweet. Many first time parents make the understandable mistake of providing detailed explanations to their toddler when they’ve done something wrong. In the end, these longer sentences are well beyond your child’s attention span. Short sentences that incorporate different inflections and facial expressions will make a lasting impression.

The best methods for disciplining your toddler are about setting healthy limits and building foundations for cooperation.

Read more info like this at  All My Children.
Author: Rob Starr