We had instructed our daughter to do a few tasks before bedtime, but 30 seconds later, she was already in her room — with damp hands, ready to be tucked in. Since we knew there hadn’t been enough time for the full bedtime routine, we asked what had happened. She replied, “I couldn’t remember everything you told me to do — so I just washed my hands!”
We soon noticed that this "do the last thing" became the norm when we asked our daughter to do multiple tasks. She would head in the right direction, but then . . . well, we weren’t sure what sidetracked her.
Some children are easily distracted; others are simply not auditory learners. For our daughter, we made a few changes to give her a better chance of following our instructions:
• limiting the directions or tasks to just one or two.
• having her repeat the directions.
• requesting that she report back for a high-five.
Since we began streamlining our requests, we noticed another benefit: Our daughter is rewarded with that great feeling of accomplishment.
This article appeared in the Jan/Feb 2012 issue of
Thriving Family magazine. Copyright © 2012 by Merissa Ramantanin. ThrivingFamily.com.