Case in point my 18 month has been playing with older children
recently. When they wanted a toy that son had they walked up and hit my son and
took the toy. My son now in turn realized that he is a very strong little boy
and with the aid of a hard toy in his hand he can really wallop someone over
the head thus gaining back the toy. So we have instated the no touch rule. I
have found that one or two different sayings that you can transfer to multiple
playing fields. Such as “No touch.” We instated the no touch saying with my son
at about 12 months. This is an all inclusive saying. It means back off, from
the kitchen stove to other children to our dog.
Simple one or two word commands are awesome for pretoddlers. This is a very hard age, they often look at you and laugh when given a command. Once you tell your child no touch and they don’t listen and hurt them self simple say “poor baby, I’m sorry mommy kiss it better this is why mommy said no touch” after a few times explaining this the concept, it will hit home. Now my son at 18 months believes me and immediately backs off when I say no touch.
However don’t abuse it or they won’t trust you. If you try and
use it for everything they will just start ignoring your commands. So as I have
stated before it’s all about balance. Other words are awesome for this as well.
Owchie, is something I tell my son as well. He knows no touch is either fragile
stuff of mine or dangerous, dangerous dog, older kid, whatever. Owchie just
means painful. “Be nice” and “soft”
basically means be gentle. “Hurt mommy” tells him that he went too far. The
trick is to keep commandments one or two words, easy to understand for little
ones.
