Terrible Twos - A Parents Guide.

Part of Chloe and Shannon's Story

Terrible Twos - What is it?

The signs of Terrible Two behaviour are set out in nine temperament traits :-

a) Sensitivity - how sensitive is your child to his/her physical surroundings. For instance a highly sensitive child may be bothered and frustrated by the tag at the back of their clothes touching their necks - like Chloe does.

b) Activity - an active child will always be on the go, and never still still for more then a few minutes.

c) Intensity of Reaction - this means that Intense children tend to overreact, and they are usually loud and have tantrums, the only way to stop one of the tantrums with experience is to count to ten and let the child cry it out.

d) Rythmicity - this deals with how your child is in a routine - say eating and sleeping.

e) Adaptability - how does the child adapt to change.

f) Mood - is your child negative or positive in their outlook.

g) Persistence - does the child become frustrated and give up on a task or do they stick with it and complete the task.

h) How easy is it to distract your child.

What Happens?

When most children turn two years old they have one word which they seem to have mastered more then any other in their vocabulary, this word been NO . At times they will say NO when they are nodding their heads because for some reason the word has a good ring to it for them.

One of the most important parts of development of the child is the time between the ages of 2 and 5, children of this age are finding out about their own independence and also learning what their limitations are with their independence.

When the child constantly says NO to you it is very important to not lose your temper with them, they are only trying to find out what they can and cannot get away with.

When asking questions try to offer options instead of YES/NO questions, because you will without doubt get a NO answer, and make sure your child has plenty of rest in this time - because a rule of thumb is that if your child is tired they will have more tantrums (associated with the Terrible Twos time), the same thing goes for hungary children.

Remedies ?

A few remedies to stop the tantrums:-

a) Distraction - try to keep your child's mind active, try putting the TV on or playing some music.

b) Seperation - remove the child from the place where they are causing trouble, but don't yell at them just move them away quietly.

c) Compromise - yes sometimes just give in, allow the child some slack, by letting your child win smaller arguements you will stand a better chance of winning the big ones.

Thanks to ABOUT.COM for the above remedies.