Comment by cabaalis
6 years ago
> The mom picked up a pebble and said, "'Hit me! Go on. Hit me harder,'" Briggs remembered. The boy threw the rock at his mother, and she exclaimed, "Ooooww. That hurts!"
My son had a tremendously difficult time in preschool with his behavior. One of the ways we were taught by the teachers to mitigate this is that we use a method similar to this. When he would bite, kick, or hit, we would greatly overreact in pain or sadness to discourage him from doing it--to teach him that those things hurt people.
That helped. But his behavior continued to be a significant problem despite various professionals' best methods until the pediatrician began treating him for ADHD. Then we had a complete and total 180.
I wonder how these people would deal with a situation like that? Would we have gotten a better outcome and not had to go a medical route?
Dog trainers recommend doing the same thing with puppies to train them not to bite you.
Same with kittens. Cats have full control of their claws, a properly socialized cat will rarely accidentally scratch you (although if they get too excited playing or don't recognize it's you - feet under covers - or are kneeding they might, but not on purpose). They usually learn this from interacting with other kittens in the litter, but the same concept applies to help train them.