Help! My child is hitting and kicking in the car seat!

1. Offer Choices: Give your child a sense of control by offering choices, like which toy to bring or which seatbelt strap to buckle first.

2. Use Positive Reinforcement: Praise your child when they get in, and let them know how proud you are of their behavior. Furthermore, be specific! For example, you could say, “Wow! I love how you got into your seat so quickly!”

3. Make It Fun: Challenge them to see how quickly they can get buckled in because it’s time to enter the car race or pretend the car seat is a spaceship and do a countdown until take off.

4. Give a warning and use a promise reinforcer: Give your child a heads-up about when it will be time to leave and get into the car seat. Additionally, you can use a promise reinforcer (an item to transition them away from the fun activity to the car).

5. Be Consistent: If you consistently require your child to get into the car seat every time without exception, they’ll understand that this is a non-negotiable rule.

6. Stay Calm: If your child starts to resist, stay calm and patient. Getting upset can escalate the situation, so take a deep breath and gently guide them into the seat. And as I said in the video, sometimes resisting can turn into a power struggle that becomes reinforcing.

8. Set Clear Expectations: Explain the importance of sitting in a car seat for safety and that it’s something everyone has to do. Sometimes understanding the why helps children cooperate.

9. Keep activities or toys in the car that are ONLY available in the car. By doing this, they remain novel and your child will be excited to have them 😌

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