Enhancing Communication with Children vs Saying “No”

When it comes to parenting it is the toughest job, yet the most rewarding! After working all day, it can get easy to just say “no” all the time to your children which unfortunately will leave them frustrated and does not enhance the communication channel. Our parents realize this and so do our teachers, so we all need to be enhancing the communication with the children so what is happening when they are with us or at home is consistent. Having a child at a daycare where they simply say “no” all the time to the children, will carry out with children being disappointed or wanting to push the boundaries even more at home. We understand the importance of children at our childcare center to communicate their feelings and open the communication channel. There are of course times we must as parents and teachers to say “no” for safety reasons to themselves or others. There is a balance between saying “no” all the time to a toddler who is exploring and learning to being too soft. Say a 20-month-old child is taught that crayons and paper go together and having these discussions, will likely not go to a wall to draw. So, if the child gets the temptation to go to the wall, all you need to do is say, “Do you remember what goes with a crayon?” She responds, “paper” and then you can say, “yes you are right, so let us see if we can find some paper so you can draw more.” Two-year-old’s often lack patience and are just excited to get on the plastic car to push themselves around. In the process a child accidentally bumps another child. It is important to discuss that accidentally bumping other children is not nice. You can ask, “what can you do to make your friend feel better?” If the child, is not certain, say. “we say excuse me if you bump into people”.  Another example is a pre-school child takes a book away from another pre-school child. This is a great time to talk about sharing. Talking to the child about the feelings of the other student, how they would feel if someone took a book from their hands and what can you do now to make it better. Sometimes you will get some crazy answers, but usually you receive the correct one. Teaching toddler’s and pre-school children to share at home and at our childcare center is important to them adjusting when they start kindergarten and is a characteristic, we all desire in adulthood. At Close to Home Childcare Center & Preschool our teachers know that positive communication in the classroom only helps the parents do the same at home to improve their child’s behavior and allows for positive interaction. Again, you can never avoid the word “no” all the time but switching it up is how our parents and us find success when we work as a team in this area so children can be creative, expressive and enhance communication with others.