We continued disciplining him with time outs on the spot and he began to learn what he could and could not do. He had good days where he was put into time out only once or twice the entire day and bad days where he seemed to be in time out all day long. Still his behavior was improving and he seemed to understand that certain actions would merit a time out which he did not like. As he got a little older how we disciplined evolved a little bit. He went from having his time outs sitting where he stood to having time outs sitting in the hallway. When we told him that he needed to go to time out (with the necessary explanation), he would go, sit on his bottom, and he would stay there until we counted down from ten. As he became more verbal and more mobile he found new ways to get into trouble mostly by way of not heeding the warnings given to him preceding the time outs. During this time we also found that using the word “stop” was more effective than telling him “no” and for a long time “no” was not a word in his growing vocabulary (not until his cousin taught it to him). However, telling him “stop” (if he did not stop, he was given a time out) began to illicit an immediate response: he would stop what ever he was doing. We also found ways of reminding him of what he should be doing and what he should not be doing. We explained to him that he needed to be a good listener and that became the bar of sorts that needed to be met if he wanted to continue playing etc. If he was not a good listener, there would be the consequence of a time out. All of these disciplinary tactics seemed to be quite effective. Our son tended towards being a good listener more often than not…
(To be continued…)