As parents and caregivers, we often just say no, but that can be confusing for young children. They might not know what behavior you don’t like if you simply say “no.” They also will not understand why that behavior is unacceptable and why they need to stop. When you just say “no” or “stop” to children, you are missing out on a teachable moment. The Three-Part Reminder is an easy way to teach your child to stop a behavior and replace it with something else with three statements.

These are the three statements to use:

1. What he can’t do.
2. Why he can’t do it.
3. What he can do instead.

Here is a step by step example:

You are bathing your child. He keeps pouring water outside of the bath tub. Here is one way to implement the Three-Part Reminder.

1. “No, you cannot pour water outside of the tub.”
2. “Someone could get hurt if they slipped on the water outside of the tub.”
3. “You may pour water from this cup to this bucket inside of the tub.”

The Three-Part Reminder is effective because children are inquisitive by nature. They want to understand why they cannot do something. By using the same Three-Part Reminder over and over, they will learn that they need to stop and they will learn why that behavior is unacceptable. Giving your child somethin positive that they can do immediately after correcting the behavior allows your child to feel like they can still participate in that type of activity, just in a different way. Try embracing these teachable moments and let us know how it goes on the Facebook post!