Helping your little one to learn rules

Rules are an important life skill. At home, at school and then at work, rules are a fact of life. So starting early to begin to teach and reinforce the importance of your children following rules is a good idea. You might be asking yourself, how early can I start to teach this skill? Well, studies have shown that kids start to understand the difference between right and wrong as early as a year one year old. And, since rules are based on right and wrong you can start with some very basic rules at this age.

• Young babies need one word reinforcement. Use the words no and yes to reinforce good from bad. As your child gets older, begin to introduce the consequence behind the rule. No, don’t do that, because you will get hurt.

• Be specific about rules as your baby develops. For example, no don’t color on that picture book. Rules aren’t always black and white; it’s o/k to color in a coloring book but not in a picture book.

• Like teaching any skill, it is important to be consistent with rules. It may be a pain to always be the enforcer but if kids know rules can be bent or broken they will try to bend them and break them.

Your child looks to you and other adults to provide structure to their lives. Rules can actually provide comfort, support and boundaries to your child. This can help them become confident teens and well adjusted adults.