Ok, so you remember me telling you that Jack has a little streak of defiance in him?!?! Well, this afternoon this defiant streak culminated in Jack's very first "timeout." You're probably thinking, 15 months seems a little early for this, huh?!?! I thought so too, but we just didn't know what else to do. Here's the story ...
To ensure safety around animals, we've been trying to teach Jack to pet dogs gently and not pull their hair. Jack follows our instruction when we say "Gentle" with his Uncle Matt and Aunt Kelly's lab Maka, but for some reason, he always pulls our dog Forest's hair. Maybe it's because Forest has longer hair so it's more tempting, or maybe it's because he knows that Forest is his dog, so he thinks he can get away with it. Either way, we don't want him to get into this habit of pulling any dog's hair, just in case he does it to a strange dog one day, and the dog reacts unfavorably.
That all being said, we were all together playing as a family this afternoon, and Jack started pulling Forest's hair. After several forceful "NO's" (followed by our little mischevious 15-month old laughing back at us, go figure), we finally resorted to "timeout" by putting Jack in his room alone with the door closed. We thought about putting him in his crib for timeout, but I don't want him to associate his bed with something negative, so we just settled on his room. I turned the monitor on to listen to him while he was alone, and instead of fussing or crying out for us, Jack of course just had himself an absolute BLAST!!! He just crawled around, playing with his books and stuffed animals. We'll have to come up with a better plan next time.
I have been forewarned on several occasions that children with Down Syndrome can be a little on the mischevious side, but I'd be lying if I told you that I was anticipating seeing this side of Jack this early on. Part of me worries about how to properly discipline him at this age, while another part of me smiles inside with the knowledge that he is intelligent enough to show this defiant side, as many "typical" children do. And, to be truthful, the little devilish giggles he lets out when he knows he's doing something wrong secretly tug at my heart strings, and it takes everything in me not to laugh back.
Nevertheless, if anyone has any advice on how to break a child (Down syndrome or not) of laughing at you when you say "no," I'm all ears ...
To ensure safety around animals, we've been trying to teach Jack to pet dogs gently and not pull their hair. Jack follows our instruction when we say "Gentle" with his Uncle Matt and Aunt Kelly's lab Maka, but for some reason, he always pulls our dog Forest's hair. Maybe it's because Forest has longer hair so it's more tempting, or maybe it's because he knows that Forest is his dog, so he thinks he can get away with it. Either way, we don't want him to get into this habit of pulling any dog's hair, just in case he does it to a strange dog one day, and the dog reacts unfavorably.
That all being said, we were all together playing as a family this afternoon, and Jack started pulling Forest's hair. After several forceful "NO's" (followed by our little mischevious 15-month old laughing back at us, go figure), we finally resorted to "timeout" by putting Jack in his room alone with the door closed. We thought about putting him in his crib for timeout, but I don't want him to associate his bed with something negative, so we just settled on his room. I turned the monitor on to listen to him while he was alone, and instead of fussing or crying out for us, Jack of course just had himself an absolute BLAST!!! He just crawled around, playing with his books and stuffed animals. We'll have to come up with a better plan next time.
I have been forewarned on several occasions that children with Down Syndrome can be a little on the mischevious side, but I'd be lying if I told you that I was anticipating seeing this side of Jack this early on. Part of me worries about how to properly discipline him at this age, while another part of me smiles inside with the knowledge that he is intelligent enough to show this defiant side, as many "typical" children do. And, to be truthful, the little devilish giggles he lets out when he knows he's doing something wrong secretly tug at my heart strings, and it takes everything in me not to laugh back.
Nevertheless, if anyone has any advice on how to break a child (Down syndrome or not) of laughing at you when you say "no," I'm all ears ...
well, i can't say we've done much but it's gotten better. i've found you just need to ignore most of the bad stuff. they look for the reaction, even the no, gives them fodder to continue to do what they are doing. i just try to redirect rachel from what she is doing to something else without drawing much attention to it.
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