React positively (even if it means ignoring some misbehavior)
Make sure a majority of your conversations and interactions are warm, supportive, and focus on what your child has done well. These positive social interactions promote a sense of cooperation, trust, while improving family relationships.
Try framing things in a creative and fun way
Parents could also try using strategic humor and creativity to motivate your child to correct their misbehaviors. Playfulness can help change the impression of “work” (cleaning up their toys and dirty clothes) to “play” (making a game out of it). Try framing tasks more creatively- for example, instead of telling your child off for not picking up their clothes, compare putting clothes into the laundry basket to a game of basketball. If your child often misbehaves, think about them in terms of severity and address the most pressing ones first.
Identify why your child is misbehaving and be supportive
All your child’s actions (including misbehavior) are motivated by some legitimate need. The easiest way to curb misbehavior is to find its motivator and address it. It could be something as trivial as tiredness, to factors like separation anxiety or perceived unfairness. Parents need to remember that children at this age are developing rapidly and are still refining their self-regulation skills.
Even if you haven’t realized why your child is misbehaving, being supportive, empathetic, and communicating may be all your child needs to open up to you. Furthermore, when parents listen and sympathize with their children, this leads to less negative emotions and stress.
Praise good behavior
Parents can focus too much on correcting misbehaviors that they neglect praising their child’s good behaviors. Studies have shown that children respond twice as effectively to rewards relative to punishments. Furthermore, praising your child’s prosocial behavior can help your child develop better social and interpersonal skills at later ages. However, parents should note that excessive and exaggerated praise can come off as insincere and sets an unrealistically high standard for their child.
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