How do I appropriately respond to my one year old when he squeals (repeatedly and loudly) to communicate ?
Teach your little one sign language (plenty of tips on the web).
Having just a handul of signs can help your wee man to communicate to you in a pleasant and effective manner.
Teach one sign at a time.
It will take him a few weeks to learn the first one, then he will usually learn the following signs within a week or so.
How do you teach a toddler to be quiet at bedtime?
Having a ritual for bedtime (same things at the same time in the same order) is a big help.
Have a time of quiet reading alone to help quieten them.
Maybe have some times during the day where you are working on verbal self-control (see book 2) to help with the night time quitness too.
How do you stop a 2 1/2 year old boy from throwing his toys around?
Demonstrate what things are for throwing (eg balls) and where they are thrown (eg backyard)
and how they are thrown (away from windows etc!) during your outsideplay times.
Role play what things are not thrown (and a brief reason why not) during your inside play times.
Act out the consequences for choosing not to throw inside toys, than act out the consequence for
choosing to throw toys inside.
Your calm and consistent consequences will teach him what you prefer.
How do you with a toddler hitting mums and other kids?
In the moment I would say one sentence (the same phrase each time - you choose) to show that this is not acceptable (we said "oh dear, that is a bad choice.")
Then I would isolate my toddler.
In between times I would role play the consequences for choosing to hit or not to hit using bears, dolls, blocks or trucks (or whatever).
The next time we are with other kids I would keep my toddler close to me so that he wouldn't have the opportunity to lash out.
Your calm and consistent teaching will change his choice.
How do you manage a toddlers clingy-ness around the home?
I tried to balance the day so that my toddler had
time alone (room play, TC+V time, Outside play etc)
time near me (toddler playing, me working and us chatting and interacting)
time with me ( reading time, craft time, academic learning time, baking etc)
This ensures the toddler is not demanding attention
because she is getting too much or too little attention.
The balance also ensured the toddler knows they are deeply loved
but also know they are part of daily life, not the whole of life.
These days there are very good programs on TV for kids
- how much should I allow my children to watch?
Each parent needs to think through there own standards here for their family.
We used 20 mins twice a day of TV or DVD viewing to teach our toddlers the self-control of sitting and focusing. We also ensured the content was mostly educational, focused on heart training or simple stories such as Postman Pat, Spot, Bob the Buidler or Thomas the tank Engine.
So many adults are addicted to feeding the appetite of entertainment through TV and DVD viewing and we need to be aware of this.
Our school age children generally had no TV viewing during the week, with one hour on Saturday only.
Being proactive and thinking this issue through is the first step.
