Toddler swearing - Pls help!

sswli

Registered User
My 2yo boy has recently picked up some new "bad words" and is now in the habit of saying them at completely inappropriate moments eg. when greeting someone, during class etc etc.

Situation is getting quite serious now, and he will say it when he wakes up, gets angry and whenever he wants attention. Perhaps its a bit our fault as the whole family would react or cover his mouth..

Have tried ignoring him, but he will keep repeating louder and louder until someone gives him attention. What to do?
 
We tell our child that it's not nice to say it. And he understands. But if he does use a word inappropriately, we tell him he should apologize. Coz even as adults we slip one in every so often in his presence. We don't make a big deal about the use but a big deal about apologizing.

So, if dad said, "Stupid driver!"... my hubby gets pretty agro by HK drivers!... He now points out that dad's used a bad/rude word, "Mummy, Daddy used a bad word!" and dad would apologize by saying, "Oh... H... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have used that word." And if it's my son who uses it, we'd point it out too and he'd apologize in the same manner.

So far so good.
 
yep, for us, even words like stupid and hate are not allowed when used for people...

definitely make the child apologise.

maybe instead of ignoring the child completely, just say "that's not a nice word. until you say sorry i'm not going to answer you."???
 
If the parents don't say these words, the child won't even know them. Not judging you, just stating the obvious. My neice (3) also swears but not much her parents can do whilst they continue to swear.
 
Well, Jane01, if the parents are the only people the child has contact with, it would obviously be an easy solution.
 
i watched super nanny some time back and she corrects the behaviour by
1. making the child say sorry
2. explaining it's not nice
3. make a rule no bad words at home. applies to everyone (it starts from home)
4. time out if there's a meltdown

what's interesting is, (if i remember correctly) she points out that the parents has to make an effort to spend quality time with the kid on a daily basis. that if the kid is acting up to get attention, it's because he needs attention. so it's things like reading a book, or playing a sport on weekend, or craft work etc. with affirmation and praise on good behaviour. that's tv...

but we've used the spending more time with our 2year old and affirmation on good behaviour. it does cut down on unwanted behaviour.
 
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my 2 yo nephew picked up rude words after he started going to a playgroup and at those times when he surprised us with these words, we (mainly i) would throw a shocked face like :eek: and tell him that we wouldn't like to hear these words from him and ask him to apologise. he needed a bit of coaxing but he did get into the habit of saying "sorry" whenever he blurted it out by mistake or in anger. he doesn't swear anymore...for now!
 
thanks for the advice, will definitely try.

Problem is, whenever my son is being disciplined he will start staring into space and pretend he doesnt hear anything. Will take us at least half hour to make him say one "sorry" next thing you know he's got his cheeky grin and saying the "bad words" over and over....

anyway, lets see how it goes....
 
A friend of mine had a similar problem, albeit her kids are older. she made it clear that if her children said those words, their friend's parents wouldn't let them play together. It's worked!
 
If a child is doing something to get attention, and it's then ignored he will ALWAYS try harder before he gives up. This is called an extinction burst. If you reward the behaviour during the extinction burst (i.e. giving him the attention when he gets REALLY LOUD) you teach him that persistance pays, and he will probably start at the louder level next time! (For example, if you tried to open a door but it wouldn't open, you would push harder. If it opened when you pushed harder, next time you needed to get through you would probably give it a big shove, as that's what worked last time!)
When you decide on a behaviour plan (and ingoring it really is the best you can do)you have to follow through for it to work - it WILL get worse before it gets better but it WILL decrease eventually if you don't give the attention. And make sure EVERYONE is doing the same thing, helpers, Granny etc, teachers too if they'll agree (although it's hard to get other children at school not to react!)
As well as this approach, you must teach your child a more appropriate way to get you attention - i.e. 'mummy will you play with me' or 'mummy, look what I'm doing/ I've got' etc. When your child is calm, teach him this language, maybe do a funny role play with puppets or the two of you acting it out. While your child is learning these new requests for attention, you must always reward them and make a big fuss of how well he's doing.
You can also make a 'nice words' reward chart. For example, draw a square and stick it to the wall. Set a timer (whatever you think is achievable- can be five minutes at first then increase the time) if your child swears during the time, you go and put a cross on the square (without giving the child attention - also best to keep it out of his reach). When the timer goes off, immediately you go together to 'check' the square, if it's not crossed out make a big fuss 'well done, you kept your square' and he gets a prize (e.g. watches a short thomas clip on youtube). If it is crossed out, say 'oh no Mummy's very sad that you won't get your prize, the square is crossed because you used bad words.' This will teach him to regulate his own behaviour in a more positive way than punishment, and you can increase the 'timer' eventually it'll be if he does a whole week without swearing that he gets a prize.
Please contact me if you'd like any more advice, I'm an applied behaviour analyst.
 
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