by Lara Everett

Created on: April 05, 2008

Assigning small chores to a toddler, does in fact, not only build their self-esteem, but it also teaches them the responsibility to their own actions, the earlier you begin the better off you will be as a parent. What I mean to say is this; children have an intense need to be praised, this is one of the greatest communicational pieces of a puzzle a child can

experience. Your child needs to know you are proud, and that they have done the right thing, just as much as they need to know when they are doing something wrong, this teaches them the difference between, right and wrong.

A child who never hears "GOOD JOB!" will settle for hearing "THAT'S A NO, NO!" just to receive some kind of response to their actions. The one who hears "GOOD JOB!" will repeat that action over and over again to hear the response that makes them proud of themselves, just knowing that Mommy and daddy are proud, is a reward in itself! The one who always hears "NO, NO THAT'S BAD" will perform to that response over and over again to see how many times they can do this before the feed back changes, which eventually you will cease to tell them no, this can create what some might consider to be "the problem child" because the only attention they receive is negative, therefor making them act that way consistently just to be noticed at all, this also gives the child the wrong idea of themselves, creating very low self-esteem.

So back on track, when you are teaching your child positive feed back, you can't just hand it out without them being deserving of such praise, unless it's how much you love them and how wonderful they are, I mean the "GOOD JOB BABY!" This should be given out when your toddler has done something wonderful!

My daughter is 20 months old, she absolutely loves, to play in the drawer containing all the pens. While, I need to have access to that drawer at all times, it's easy for her to get to. We started playing a game called "put it away," she truly enjoys this game, mostly because of the clapping, and shouting "YEAH, GOOD GIRL, WOO HOO!" She'll go get a pen, look at me for a second, bring it to my attention, I will pretend to use the pen, then say, "thank you baby, now go put it away, please" she will smile big, while she walk-runs to put said pen back in it's place, after placing the pen back into the drawer, closing the drawer and then she brushes her hands off, as if they had gotten dusty, she then turns to look at me, and awaits her praises.

This game will go on for quite some

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