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From birth
Generally speaking it is pretty hard for an infant to do anything wrong, the can't move much and they certainly don't control
their movement very well!
While you can still teach them some things, I hesitate to use a word like discipline, the modern conotation senses punative
means, and no punative means of discipline is needed or will work on an infant.
That doesn't mean flailing arms are allowed to go where they will, or that biting is allowed. Smiles are wonderful rewards
for babies, moving hands that scratch, or setting a biter down for a second with a firm NO works wonders. (When they get
molars you can start over again on the biting!)
At around 6 months:
Babies can understand and recall things for short periods of time, and generally have learned object perminance. This means
they know an object that was there yesterday will be here today, and will start to remember that some objects can be played
with and some can't.
1. Say NO and remove the thing if possible or distract if it isn't. (don't get rid of everything)
If they go right back to the same no object:
2. Say no again, and distract again, and put myself between them and the no object.
If they still go back
3.Say NO again, and use a time out (about 10 seconds of sitting still, I restrained them), followed by a distraction.
If they still go back, leave the room! Try again another day.
Late toddlerhood
When children start to get a longer memory you can switch to the truck thing, or use the truck thing in combination with some
timeouts. You can certainly skip the warning for VERY old rules.
The Truck Thing
Back to behavior
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