Parents want nothing other than to do the very best they can for their children. Not only do you need to show love and respect for your child, you also need to be able to set boundaries and find ways to encourage good behaviour.
Consistency is one of the key aspects when teaching children, throughout life. This can help you to establish good behaviour. There will be times when children can be a little ‘challenging’, but the more consistent you are, the easier it can become over time.
Use your own behaviour to guide your child. Your child will watch you and will get ideas on how to behave – often what you do can have more of an impact than what you say. Simple things like if you want your child to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, it’s important to make sure you do this yourself.
Letting your child know how you feel and how their behaviour affects you can also help. If they are doing something that is disruptive, for example, explain to them the way they are making you feel with their behaviour.
Praising and even rewarding good behaviour helps to focus on the positive. Reward charts can be a great way to recognise good behaviour at the moment it happens and can be particularly useful for things like potty training or brushing their teeth. There are lots of different ways to create a reward chart, that can be tailored to your own child and the behaviours you want to encourage.
