How To Discipline A Strong Willed Child ?

Children can be classified as normal children and children who are aggressive or having strong will. It will not be wrong to say they have disruptive tendency. Their main focus is on unrest in the family or amongst the siblings. These children have to be dealt in a specialized manner. Exercising patience by the parents dealing with such children is the first and foremost thing to be remembered. These type of children love to create unrest and enter into arguments over any and everything. Unpleasant environment surrounding them will give them a feeling of satisfaction. Such children by their disruptive activities try to seek attention.

A simple example of such children can be a case of a brother and sister. If the brother takes a toy owned by an aggressive sister, she will start verbal fight with him and by shouting or raising her voice, will try to get the attention of the whole family. If the brother is of milder nature, he will return the toy. The boy is happy that he ended the fight and will get praise from parents, which is positive attention. The girl will try to involve the mother who will also start yelling at her, this is negative attention.

Take the instance of a girl yelling at each and every one. Due to some reason she is in a bad mood and tries to pick up quarrel with anyone and everyone. The object of the child is to get attention. It will be difficult to control such a child by losing patience. In such an event, she having a negative attitude , will try to aggravate the situation. The best option is find an opportunity and for some reason or the other praise her. The moment such a child finds that the hue and cry raised is not serving her purpose she will change her methodology.

It is of utmost importance that the parents give maximum possible attention to children. Praising such a child will result in development of positive attitude. In the first case studied by us, if the parents praise her for allowing her brother to play with her toy even though for a short time, it will make her happy and contented. Similarly in the second case, though it was difficult for the parents to keep cool, the problem ended when the child was praised for even a small act or good behaviour. This attitude will help towards development of positive environment for the strong willed child, who over a long period of time, with continued attention and perseverance will have a changed attitude towards life.