Morgan is 28 months old. This age is as equally fun, sweet and downright fascinating as it is challenging. One big challenge we are having right now is with hitting/scratching/screaming. The 3 behaviors go together and have earned her many timeouts.
Is anyone else's toddler going through this when they don't get their way? She screams, hits & scratches me and Joey frequently if she's not getting her way. She sometimes will do it to the babysitter or Nana, rarely Daddy. What gives?
I am trying to be firm and consistent, just like I've read. She gets a warning and presented with a choice. If she chooses to continue x, she chooses time out. We do one minute of time out per year of age, so she gets 2 minutes. I ignore her while she's in timeout because everything I've read (and completely agree with) is that the WORST punishment you can give a child is NOT giving them your attention. When the time is up, I explain to her in a kind voice and simple terms what she did was wrong and I always tell her I love her. I have also started making her apologize to whoever she hit.
But -- sometimes when I've put her in time out for the 4th time in one day, I wonder if it's doing any good?
One day, she even started pushing her chair to the wall herself as I was putting her in time out.
So I know she GETS it. How do I get her to STOP this behavior?
.JPG)
We are dealing with the SAME issue! Time out over and over again. I've noticed the days it's worse are when Hadley is tired/hungry/or having serious teething pain from a molar that is coming in. She wants attention from it so often times if she pushes Scarlett and Scarlett doesn't get upset then I act like I didn't see it and I redirect her to another activity. The worst is when we're in the house all day so now I know we MUST go out once a day or she starts hitting. Honestly, I'm no where near as upset about it as the grandparents get because I know this is normal for her age and ALL kids go through this. But the timeout thing rarely seems to work :/ Last night I made her sit in her bedroom for five minutes for hitting and that worked because she had to leave the birthday party fun. The best recommendation I've heard was in my teaching program- instead of time out try 'time in' where you sit down on their level and give them attention for a bit. Unfortunately that doesn't work when I'm trying to get things done but I have tried it before and it works well, that or just putting her down for a nap or giving a snack since that's likely what she needs if she's resorted to hitting. Trust me, I can relate on this one!!
ReplyDelete