General Tips

• When you are NOT faced with a challenging behavior, think carefully about how you want to respond. In the heat of frustration, we tend to over-react or under-react. Decide on your parenting approach with thought, not reaction or simply because “this is how I was raised.”
• Discipline is about teaching and guiding, not punishment. Punishment is meant to hurt and its effectiveness is typically short-term. Discipline has a long-term goal to teach your child self-control.
• Consider the child’s age, temperament, if they are tired, hungry, angry or need attention. All behavior is meaningful and is telling you something.
• Children need lots of learning trials to master behaviors. You may feel like a broken record, but they need to be reminded at times.

• I first noticed the behavior when...
• When I see this behavior my first reaction is….
• The message I get from society and family about this behavior is...
• Some positive ways I’ve handled the behavior is….

• Be calm, sincere when you speak to children
• Be aware of your body language, facial expressions.
• Avoid words, “no, don’t, stop”.
• Never ask a child “why” when they are angry, instead ask “what did you need or want?”

• Child
• Environment
• Caregiver
• Parent

• Have 5 pennies in your pocket at the beginning of the day.
• Choose a child who needs more positive attention.
• Each time you offer positive reinforcement (“good job” does not count!) transfer penny to other pocket.
• “Children would rather be praised than punished and rather be punished than ignored.”

Soothing Young Babies The 5 S’s

• Swaddling
• Side or Stomach Position
• Shushing
• Swinging
• Sucking
  Karp, 2005

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