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Kids Sense When You See Them As the Enemy!

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Children sense if you attitudinally see them as the enemy and their behaviors as bad, bad, bad. Children know if you don't like them or see them as an energy drain, a nuisance and a bother.

As adults, we know this too. The only difference is that we've learned over the years how to pretend we don't feel what we feel, know what we know, or want what we really want. Children learn from us how to become the label that has been put on them.

You must give positive regard to children if you are to receive respect. We teach people how to treat us. It is incongruous to expect children to be respectful when you are not respectful in your attitude and your treatment of them.

It's like pushing a child to the ground, putting your foot on her shoulder and yelling "Get Up!"

Children's IQs are already highly developed by age two, so if you engage children of all ages in two-way communication, they can learn to "use their words" to discuss, rather than "act out," what they are feeling and needing to communicate.

You teach children how to be accountable for their behavior by simply asking them to share what's going on with them that is causing them to do what they are doing.

Asking "what" not "why" raises their emotional intelligence, and will eliminate habitual excuse-making. Once the thinking and the feelings are voiced and understood, the two of you can come up with an agreeable solution.

Age Appropriate Expectations

The number one mistake many professionals and parents make is treating children as if they should know better! Why would they know better?

When dealing with a situation, ask yourself this question: "Is this behavior normal and age appropriate?" Then ask: "Has this child previously been taught how to deal with situations like this?"

Children are open books. You tell them that if they do this, they can expect that, and they believe you! When you label a child, or think of him as a "problem" child, he believes you and will experience problems. If you tell a child that he can prove himself to you and earn your trust, and here's how, he believes you and will want the benefits your trust will give him as he earns it.

Excerpt from Make A Difference with the Power of Connection
By Mary Robinson Reynolds
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To learn more, take 30 minutes, read my book in its entirety and see what a difference a book makes! Click Here to read.

Mary Reynolds Mary Robinson Reynolds, M.S., Educational Psychologist, Author and Producer of the world renowned Internet videos, MakeADifferenceMovie.com and AcknowledgmentMovie.com - both amassing over 10 million views within a few short months of their releases - spent many years as a classroom teacher K-8 and then as a counselor K-12. She parlayed her phenomenal success with youth at-risk into her programs for business leaders, entrepreneurs and managers on how to be energetically effective in leading improvement in their organizations through the power of Team Synergy and MasterMinding. She has written eight books, developed UTrain&Coach programs that anyone can take into their place of work to build organization wide Team Synergy, and has presented to over 20,000 people in two year period in every major city in the U.S. To learn more go to: maryreynolds.com

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