Complaint against my Toddler behavior at a gym class...need advice?

Some children are a little more difficult to handle than others. You need to understand that all children behave badly at some time or the other in their lives. The difference is some have more bad behavior episodes than others. What matters is how you react to it and how you help the child realize that his behavior was not acceptable and should not be repeated.

Some toddlers tend to get aggressive and react by biting, hitting, scratching, pulling hair and screaming when they don’t get their way. Such children need special care, love and consideration. Most children don’t know how to react to certain situations that agitate them and since they have limited vocabulary and means of expressing themselves they tend to react in this manner in order to get your attention. Very often when children are faced with too many changes in their surrounding and home such as; a new day care center or baby sitter, milestones such as potty training, physical ailments such as toddler tooth aches and ear infections as well as moving into a new house they tend to behave badly as they find it difficult to adjust to these changes and don’t know how to express their frustration. Such children tend to bite as a response to frustration.

You need to first find out what exactly he does during gym class that’s not acceptable and then talk to him about it when he gets home. Don’t yell and shout as you have to get your child to trust you and be comfortable to talk to you about the problem. Try and set targets and maintain a colorful chart that records and mark his behavior. Tell him that he’ll be rewarded at the end of the week if he gets through the week with no complaints from the gym class. Ask him to place a sticker on the chart at the end of the week if there were no complaints. Plan a special treat such as a trip to his favorite park, restaurant or for a movie. You could also reward him by praising him every day and making a big deal of it by telling everyone at home what a good boy he was today. If he has not met the target don’t punish him instead just don’t give him the special treat as that is punishment in itself. After a while you will notice that your child tried to behave himself because he eagerly awaits the treat at the end of the week and he makes the connection that other people react positively to good behavior.

Submitted by P T on May 7, 2010 at 05:13

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