Remember discipline growing up? … Well, a lot has changed! There has been a parenting paradigm shift. Moving away from controlling to connecting.

In the 1950s, child development ideas were dominated by advice to parents of not ‘spoiling’ infants by picking them up or comforting them too much when they cried. Now we know better.  Science confirms the current parenting paradigm shift away from punishment and managing behavior to becoming more connected and responsive to our children. We now understand discipline is about teaching. Discipline should encourage children to make better and more responsible choices.

All behavior is communication. Although our child’s behavior may be challenging (and annoying at times!), we need to constantly be seeking "the why” behind them.

Children’s ‘difficult’ behaviors may often seem random and unpredictable, but they aren't necessarily when you understand the reason behind them.

Children may try to communicate their feelings with behaviors such as yelling, not listening, silliness, interrupting, crying, or hitting. When we see challenging behaviors, we ask ourselves, “What is my child trying to communicate?” This will help shift our thinking…

 from our child is being difficult 

to our child is having a difficult time.

It is important for us to become parent detectives to better understand why our child is having a difficult time. Some of the numerous factors that contribute to behavior will be explored on the next page.