March 28, 2022

Getting Your Toddler To Listen Without Shouting

18 minutes

Are your ears painted on? Can you just do as you're told?

Have you ever had these thoughts run through your head after trying to get your toddler out the door? It can feel very frustrating trying to get a toddler to do something and resorting to shouting and yelling can be a very well worn path in the social interaction with your resistant toddler.

The good news is that if you are intentional you can improve your toddler's listening skills. In this parenting chat we talk about how to:

Be slow to comment and quick to listen. Model active listening

Reduce the number of instructions that we are giving to give our toddlers time to follow one thing at a time.

Try to get their attention before giving them an instruction. Singing to them can be a great way to cut through the noise or something they are engrossed in

Have quality time in the car while they are strapped in. There is power in developing language and modeling taking turns to talk through car chats without having some music/screen/podcast.

When you are playing with your child try giving them an old phone and playing having a conversation with them taking turns.

Audiobooks especially for quiet time instead of kids youtube or watching a cartoon can be really amazing for developing their listening comprehension.

Action rhymes are not only fun but they are sequential so kids learn to associate names with actions. Kids learn through doing and music is a powerful medium to teach things without the kids even realising.

Specific praise is key. Good boy or good girl have limited meaning for toddlers. But making a sentence to let them know what you are impressed with will up the chances of them wanting to repeat the behaviour.

Kids often do parallel play where they learn alongside someone else. Instead of counting down the minutes until when they go to bed so you can rush around getting heaps of chores done save some to do while your toddler is awake. Helping with jobs empowers kids and gives them a sense of contributing. They learn so much while doing things alongside you.

For more great tips head on over to our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/looloostorenz/

...more

View all episodes

By Laura from Looloo