A couple of weeks ago Preston was introduced to time out for the first time. 17 months sounds young... But this kid is smart. He knows when he is doing something "bad" and he knows what no means. I talked to his pediatrician and asked her if time out would do any good at this age, and she said ABSOLUTELY.
Our time out routine is very simple. If Preston does something wrong, he gets 2 warnings. Whether the warning is me simply stating NO or me redirecting him to something else. If he continues to go back to doing the same wrong thing, I go and pick him up and just say "it's time out time". I sit him down in front of the stove and set the timer for 1 minute and I don't look or talk to him. If he gets up I will put him back and reset the timer until he sits in that spot for the entire minute.
When I first tried this I thought for sure he wasn't going to corporate. But I was amazed that it only took me two times resetting the timer for him to sit and not move.
He has only been in time out a handful of times, but it seems very effective for him. Preston NEVER sits still, so I know 60 seconds seems like eternity to him. I love my hyper, busy boy!
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