Ask Allison
My three year old hits when he’s angry. What are some ways that I can stop this behavior without resorting to spanking?
First of all, this behavior is normal for this age. Spanking is never a good idea for dealing with any discipline issue much less the issue of hitting. Hitting a child who hits to teach that child to not hit does not show common sense in parenting. Also anger is a secondary emotion and helping the child to identify what feelings led him to feeling angry is helpful to his emotional development.
My oldest begin the hitting stage at around 2.5. At first we were at a loss for what to do. ‘No hit!’, we’d say to no avail. Finally we got some great advice. ‘Have him hit a pillow’, I read online. So we did. It was a great outlet for whatever he was feeling. We helped to identify what he was feeling and let him punch away at a special pillow reserved for just that. By the age of three he was no longer hitting when upset. He wasn’t hitting us and he was rarely hitting the pillow.
April 4th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
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