You are in a hurry to go to soccer practice, and you almost have the toddler ready so you ask your child to grab their soccer cleats.
Waiting by the front door, you don’t hear a sound or see any movement, so like any rational parent you yell a little louder for them to get the cleats and get to the door.
Every mom is familiar with this scenario and knows how it escalates very quickly into a confrontational situation.
Sometimes, our child tells us they didn’t hear us, or they were trying to finish something “real quick.” The truth is that we failed to have their attention before trying to get them to listen.
It seems that kids are selectively deaf when it comes to directives, but there are effective techniques that can get your child to hear what you’re saying without raising your voice.
Children not only require us to effectively get their attention to truly hear what we are trying to tell them, but they need more time to process requests.
When you find a technique that works well for getting your young one to comprehend that you are talking to them, they are going to be more apt to obey.
Let’s review some tried and true methods to have our children listen and respond before we fall into the hollering trap.