Positive Discipline Tips for Early Childhood Parents

Students gently place a hand on their guide's shoulder to let them know they would like their guide's attention when he or she is available.

This Saturday, Molly Henry will be hosting an Intro to Positive Discipline workshop. If you haven't had the opportunity to participate, or if you would enjoy a little refresher, please go to the Abintra website to register for the class. Positive Discipline is a defining part of your child's education at Abintra.

We wanted to share a few of the most successful strategies we use with early childhood students. This developmental period is often challenging for parents, and we receive many questions about power struggles, difficulties with verbal directions, and noncompliance. If you are observing challenging behavior at home, we urge you to attend one of Molly's classes so that you can learn a variety of tools that will support you, and your child, during this stage of life. Here are three of our favorites:

• Limited Choices
• Young children crave autonomy and independence. Providing simple choices builds self-confidence and gives children a sense of control about what will happen next. Offer no more than two choices and make certain that you are willing to accept either choice that your child makes.

• Follow Through
• Say what you mean and mean what you say. If you set an expectation for your child today, it needs to be an expectation tomorrow. Your child will test these boundaries and consistency is key. Children feel far safer with stable boundaries.

• Modeling
• Model the behaviors that you want your child to emulate. For young children, seeing is more powerful than hearing.