Managing Your Growing Child's Behaviour

Children entering school at around the age of five will likely become more independent. However, without the skill to interact with peers and adults, your child will likely find the experience disappointing and depressing. Hence, you should be attentive to this need in order to avoid the development of unpleasant behaviour. Since your child requires guidance to achieve this ideal, your role as a parent is very important here.

Initially, you can increase your expectations, which would be a bit more exacting compared with how you dealt with her when she was yet an infant. For instance, at this age, your child must exhibit basic table manners, greet adults politely, carry on a simple conversation, receive and extend a compliment, and so on. If she forgets to place the napkin on her lap, simply remind her about what she has to do when you begin eating. She will surely remember the right behaviour next time if you do not scold her for her mistake.

Since it is at this age that she will start to be involved in adult situations, such as family gatherings, meals at restaurants, or eating at a friend's house with you, make sure that she is equipped with an understanding of appropriate manners. It can also help if you will remind her that it is not proper to begin eating until everybody has been served. By doing all this, she will certainly remember it every time an occasion will come. Just do not underestimate your child's ability to learn these things since they have a natural curiosity at this age and are usually very willing to emulate adult behaviour.