Your 8-9 year old child is at an age where they begin to feel a strong urge to belong. Along with the need to belong, your child may be more inclined to give in to peer pressure. Now that your 8-9 year old has the ability to converse at a higher level, it's important to listen to your child's concerns about school and friends with love and understanding. While listening to their sometimes never ending descriptions you may stumble across an opportunity to teach through example. In these cases, praise for appropriate reactions or suggestions on how to handle things differently, allows for a casual teaching opportunity.
Emotions can change quickly with your 8-9 year old. Never react to your child's tantrums with a tantrum of your own. Instead, stay calm and exert your authority as a parent by giving age appropriate discipline. Verbal instruction and an explanation of consequences can help your child develop a sense of good judgment. At this age money starts to mean more to a child so withholding allowance or making your child work to pay off an offense can deter difficult behavior.
Exert
This is a stage where your child should be able start getting better control of his or her emotions. However, your 8-9 year old will still be prone to bouts of sensitivity and over dramatization. It's important to give consistent correction for tantrums at every stage, and your 8-9 year old is no exception. If given the chance to get their way with tantrums, you are laying the foundation for even greater rebellion in the future.
Handling Difficult Behavior in 8-9 Year Old Children
Do you want to learn exactly how to eliminate your child's out-of-control and defiant behavior without using Punishments, Time-Outs, Behavioral Plans, or Rewards? To Download and listen to my FREE audio recordings visit: Free Audio Recordings
Jason Johnson (MSW) has worked with hundreds of toddlers through teenagers diagnosed with A.D.H.D, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Aspergers Syndrome, Bi-polar, and SEVERE emotional/behavioral issues.
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