3 Ways to Make Delivery of Correction More Effective

First time obedience is a sometimes controversial subject, perhaps because it takes discipline on the part of parents to enforce it.

Why First-time Obedience Is Important

For reasons why it’s important, see my article in the Hale Center Insider.   http://www.sallyandterrywright.com/Story01-31-12_CAROLE_BELL_3REASONS.php. There’s another reason why it’s essential. If children have been trained to respond the first time their parents speak to them, it will make the teen years (picture the lanky teen draped across the couch oblivious to the world) much easier on everyone.

Three Techniques for Delivering Instruction Or Correction 

Although consistency and follow through are what makes first time obedience work, how instruction or correction is delivered determines how difficult it is to initiate. Consider three techniques that make delivery more effective.

• Keep your voice low and firm. Early in my teaching career, I developed a bad case of laryngitis. I discovered my whisper got more attention than my normal voice. After I was well, I continued to speak softly to my classes, a technique that was very effective in the classroom. Our own children also respond better to a softly spoken word.
• Maintain eye contact. I can remember getting right in front of my teen son before I began to speak to him. He usually laughed at me and then listened…while we maintained eye contact.
• Get on their level. Words delivered “from above” are not as effective as those delivered on eye level. For a small child, that may mean getting on the floor. And yes, I’ve been known to get on my knees beside the couch that held that lanky teen.

Learn to use these three techniques when talking to your kids whether it is for correction, instruction, or conversation. You’ll likely find they respond better to what you have to say.