Use Kinesthetic Learning to Improve Behavior

Is your young child a kinesthetic learner? If he learns by doing, then the answer is yes.  Have you ever considered utilizing this learning method when your child misbehaves?

Here are some examples:

Listening

Instead of saying, “Listen to me,” tell your child to “turn your listening ears on” and motion for her to touch her ears and pretend to turn a volume dial up.  If you need to redirect her again, consider handing her pretend batteries, or pull invisible listening ears out of your pocket and tell her, “your listening ears need an upgrade.”

Whining

Next time your child starts to whine, direct him to “take the whine out of your mouth.” Encourage him to put his hand to his mouth and make a spitting motion with his mouth.  At this point I usually ask my child to put the whine in a trash can,  throw it out the window or even drop-kick it “out of the park”.  This can also work for naughty or unkind words.

Using words
Try pretending to hand a bag of words to your child if the common phrase, “use her words,” doesn't work.  Tell her, “Pull the word please out of the word bag,” then encourage her to swallow or pretend to chew it.

Rough touch

If your child has a problem being rough with his peers, hand him imaginary “gentle touch gloves.” Help him to put the gloves on.  Similarly, “sharing gloves” can help remind a child not to grab from others.

A tactile method of child rearing will usually bring a smile to your child’s face (and yours). It engages a child’s imagination and gives the little one a physical understanding of abstract behavior concepts that are otherwise difficult for young children to grasp.

Discipling and redirecting children is not the fun part of parenting.  However, engaging a child tactily can help elevate some stress and provide the child with tools for success.  And that deserves a big Woo-Hoo!