Larissa Dann
‘You can’t reason with a very young child. The only way to make them change their behaviour is to use rewards or punishment!’ These are sentiments I often hear, or read, when there is a discussion on disciplining small children.
However, my experience as both a parent, and parent educator, is that when given the chance, young children can respond impressively to empathy, explanation and reasoning. They can even join us in problem solving.
Sometimes, I wonder if we, unintentionally, restrict the ability of our very young children to show us their full potential, because we are hampered by developmental expectations, or the expectations and judgements of others.