This milestone won’t win a spot in the baby book, but when it comes to giving a toddler his first time outs you can bet that it can be a challenging time for caregivers and parents. Time outs are important for a toddler to learn how to calm themselves down when something upsets them. The best time to start placing a toddler in time outs would be about nineteen months old, since many psychologists believe that toddlers have the ability to start learning self control at this time. If you are a caregiver and want to know how to handle time outs for the first time then this article can help you learn how to effectively teach a toddler self control. Here are three steps that have worked for many caregivers and will work for you as well found below.
Forget The Finger Wagging.
When a child’s caregiver threatens time out with the finger wagging, the toddler may think that its okay to throw that toy one more time at the wall or even at another toddler. The best way to make time outs more effective would be to forget the finger wagging and just place them in time out and state in short words why they are in time out to begin with. It also helps if the caregiver doesn’t give the toddler an emotional reaction, otherwise the toddler will still resist time out, since they want attention out of you to begin with.
Throw Out That Naughty Chair.
In the past many caregivers have tried to use the Naughty Chair as a way to get kids to stop their disruptive behavior, but often times this method backfires. Today caregivers tend to just use the ignore or go into another room method as long as the toddler is in a safe environment. Again be sure to use small words to let them know why they are in the time out situation.
Learn To Stay Emotionally Detached At All Times.
Often times it takes a toddler a short amount of time to figure out what pushes our buttons and how they can get the things they want without hassle. That is why a toddler will often whine for twenty minutes, because that’s how long it takes for the caregiver to give up and give the crying toddler what they want. However, the best way to handle this situation is to stay emotionally detached at all times and walk to another room. This method works, but it will take time until the toddler realizes that the old game isn’t going to work anymore.