Another post about the brushing teeth crises
Well,
the teeth chart came to a complete halt success wise. After a hard
night, George refused to brush his teeth and he had one sticker... one
more sticker to earning a car. I successfully brushed his teeth after a
dramatic forced brushing, and then refused to give him a sticker. For a
week after, I could not get him to open his mouth and couldn't let my
self abuse my son (nor did I want him to associate bad memories with
teeth brushing).
With my son, I've learned an important lesson with this challenge we've had. One, he does not do good with negative training, only positive reinforcement. If I try to make him feel guilty or bad for the decision he made, instead of focusing on the good and changing the direction, it totally backfires on me. This is basically really hard for me, because I'm sort of like George inside. Growing up my dad had to go all the way to strike fear of death in me to even comply with him. I've been through enough of that to know the effects of it and walking on eggshells, and it's really hard to get over it, so I'm not doing that with my son (only through therapy and church and good role models of strong marriages like my sister's, have I made it through making it possible to find a sweet man like my husband, who treats me like an angel from heaven). So, with George, my goals are to focus and develop patience, distract him, and praise him for the good he does. Which by the way is working great, just really tries your patience at times. :)
I talked with my mom of what on earth to do (think toddler refusing to open his mouth and closing his eyes calmly in refusal), my mom told me of what my sis did with her girls. As my sister brushed Rebecca and Penelope's teeth, she would tell them stories... Now, I remember seeing them sit in her lap and lay back as my sis went rampant on their teeth and was really impressed. So since then, I've done the same with George, but what I missed though was her telling them stories! For two days now, I have started "story telling", and guess what? It's worked! I let George pick the name of the dragon the story was about at first, let him choose it's color, and now we have stories about Abo at teeth-brushing story time! I still do stickers, but instead of week long charts, I've started a night/morning ticket where he gets a sticker for each brushing. Each sticker equals 5 minutes of TV time (Daniel the Tiger)... He's been getting to watch half an episode of Daniel the Tiger a day. I haven't watched any TV since we cut the hours of TV time for George, but now watching 10 minutes a day is such a treat even for me that I watch it with him (the way it should be anyway). Well, I hope this keeps up. Remember Mary, positive reinforcement and distraction are key. Goodness, there's so much to learn and so much wisdom from family members!!! Thank you to my sister Kat, my mom, and also my mother-in-law Vicki :)
With my son, I've learned an important lesson with this challenge we've had. One, he does not do good with negative training, only positive reinforcement. If I try to make him feel guilty or bad for the decision he made, instead of focusing on the good and changing the direction, it totally backfires on me. This is basically really hard for me, because I'm sort of like George inside. Growing up my dad had to go all the way to strike fear of death in me to even comply with him. I've been through enough of that to know the effects of it and walking on eggshells, and it's really hard to get over it, so I'm not doing that with my son (only through therapy and church and good role models of strong marriages like my sister's, have I made it through making it possible to find a sweet man like my husband, who treats me like an angel from heaven). So, with George, my goals are to focus and develop patience, distract him, and praise him for the good he does. Which by the way is working great, just really tries your patience at times. :)
I talked with my mom of what on earth to do (think toddler refusing to open his mouth and closing his eyes calmly in refusal), my mom told me of what my sis did with her girls. As my sister brushed Rebecca and Penelope's teeth, she would tell them stories... Now, I remember seeing them sit in her lap and lay back as my sis went rampant on their teeth and was really impressed. So since then, I've done the same with George, but what I missed though was her telling them stories! For two days now, I have started "story telling", and guess what? It's worked! I let George pick the name of the dragon the story was about at first, let him choose it's color, and now we have stories about Abo at teeth-brushing story time! I still do stickers, but instead of week long charts, I've started a night/morning ticket where he gets a sticker for each brushing. Each sticker equals 5 minutes of TV time (Daniel the Tiger)... He's been getting to watch half an episode of Daniel the Tiger a day. I haven't watched any TV since we cut the hours of TV time for George, but now watching 10 minutes a day is such a treat even for me that I watch it with him (the way it should be anyway). Well, I hope this keeps up. Remember Mary, positive reinforcement and distraction are key. Goodness, there's so much to learn and so much wisdom from family members!!! Thank you to my sister Kat, my mom, and also my mother-in-law Vicki :)
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