In this post, we are providing you some tips on how to talk to your toddler because the usual methods used by parents don’t usually work on kids and children start to ignore the words of their parents as they are growing up. There are mainly 2 purposes of the tips we are going to offer to you in this post which is as follows:-
1 – To Establish a Strong Connection between You and Your Child
It is very important that you should build a good rapport with your children because then only they will listen to you and share their emotions with you which will help you to understand them better.
2 – To Teach Them the Language
A kid’s brain is very open to learning new skills since it is in the development phase, so you should use language properly in front of them so that it becomes easy for them to understand the words and learn to communicate verbally as quickly as possible.
Considering these 2 purposes, let’s see what methods will enable you to make your kids listen to you.
Get Their Attention before Talking
Getting the attention of a kid is not an easy task, you cannot expect your kid to listen to you when you are not even standing in front of them. Before you talk to your kid, sit in front of them and make them look at you otherwise your words will not have any kind of impact on them.
Use Simple Language
If you want your baby to learn how to speak quickly, then you should avoid the “baby talk” and begin to talk to them in a normal way just like you speak to others. However, you should try to use easy to learn and clear words that form sort sentences so that they could make sense of what you are trying to communicate.
When you talk to your kid try to speak slowly and patiently so that their mind can absorb the information. Also be in front of them while talking so that they could read your lips and pay attention to the words.
Giving Options Over Instructions
Like us, kids also don’t like to follow instructions given by others. The reason why most kids don’t listen to their parents is that they don’t like to be controlled by anyone and they want the freedom to do things the way they want. But there is another way to make them listen to you, giving options is a psychological trick which enables you to discipline your kid with the least resistance.
This means that whenever you want to make your kid do something, give them choices. For example, if you want them to take bath, instead of telling them “its time to take bath” give them some choices like “would you like to use the shower or the bathtub for bathing today?”.
Don’t React
Parents get frustrated when their kids throw tantrums or refuse to listen to them, but reacting to such situations will only make things worse.
Do not yell at your kids because kids won’t take you seriously when you use the loud tone a lot. Instead, be quiet and use a calm and serious tone to make them realize that they have done something unacceptable. The more you speak, the lesser will be the impact on them, so try to stay as composed as possible.
Use General Statements Over Commands
As we have discussed before, kids don’t like to follow orders and commands, so you should focus on rephrasing your words in a way that they don’t find it like a compulsion to do something according to your wish. Using general statements and positive words work better than instructions because it gives the kid a sense of freedom to make their own choice.
According to one of the program that we have reviewed which is based on the NLP techniques named “Talking to Toddlers“, using positive suggestions in the place of statements that involves negations works better while speaking to young children. For example, instead of using sentences like “don’t leave your toys on the floor” prefer something like “put your toys back into its place” or something even better would be “your toys look good in the closet rather than on the floor”.
Be a Good Listener and Set an Example
Kids learn most of their behavior by observing the people around them, especially, their parents. When they sense the stress in you while you talk to them, they react to the situation in the same manner.
Take your time to spend with them and listen to them attentively whenever they are trying to express their thoughts. This will make them realize that you care about them enough to take their thoughts seriously and it will encourage them to be more like you. When you will develop a deep bond with your kid in this way it will become easier for you to communicate with them.
We hope you found this post useful, for some expert parenting strategies we recommend you to try out the product named “Talking to Toddlers by Chris Thompson“.
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It’s so reassuring to read tried and tested techniques that actually work. Reading this today reminded me of “giving options” – something I often do but sometimes forget. I tried it again on my little one this afternoon and hey presto it worked! Thank you. I also love the part about setting an example. So much of how our children behave is copied from our behaviour and that’s really worth remembering.
Thank you for your response. We are more than happy to hear from someone who tried our suggested method and had a positive response from their child. People often forget that their children always try to imitate their parents and hence setting an example in front of your children is one of the key factors in preparing them for their future life.