3 tips to improve your child's behavior from Helping Families Thrive

1. Notice and praise positive behavior (read this blog post on praise). We often accidentally miss when our kids are behaving well and fall into a trap of correcting and directing all day long! Oops. We have to be intentional about letting them know we appreciate their positive behavior.

2. Reframe your thinking about misbehavior. If we view misbehavior as our child deliberately doing something naughty or to make us mad, research shows we're more likely to respond harshly (and less effectively). A helpful mantra can be, “my child isn't giving me a hard time, they're having a hard time.”

3. Tell your child what TO DO rather than what not to do. Instead of saying “stop," “no," “don't do that” all day long, shift to telling your child what you want them to do instead. If your child is climbing on something, rather than “don't climb” try “keep your feet on the floor.”

While these tips sound simple, it actually takes a lot of effort on our part as parents to implement them well and consistently. But when we do, we will begin to see improvements in behavior (including our own!).