The best training for children arrived, surprisingly, through training dogs. Parents truly have to outsmart their dogs and their kids.
Set up a situation you want to confront or improve.
If I want to train a dog to not eat a sandwich left on the coffee table, I make a sandwich I never intend on eating. I place the plate and sandwich on the table and leave the room but hover, peeking. The minute the dog makes a real move towards the sandwich, I walk casually back into the room and correct him. I believe this took about a dozen sandwiches or so, with about a dozen departures per sandwich.
I placed raw ground beef balls RIGHT at the edge of the kitchen counter while I did dishes or cooked. If the dog tried to procure the meat, I was right there to correct him.
It works! Set up kids the same way.
You don't the child to touch an object? At an early age, you must remove sharp objects, etc. The child's safety should always be of the utmost concern.
If the child is old enough to truly train, leave a questionable object where
the child can get to it, instead of putting it out of sight as you would
for a younger child.
When the child reaches for the object again, remove it, tell the child no
(short and simple) and replace the object.
Stay with the child and/or the object and repeat until the child accepts
that the object is not to be touched, no matter how long it takes.
It is the parent's job to teach and train the child.
If a parent gets tired of the effort and quits the endeavor, a terrible
disservice is done to both parent and child.
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