DS has very limited language skills - as in, bye-bye, and uh-oh, and that might be it. Not even mama or dada.
Until about a week ago, and then we heard it, clear as day. . . (duh, duh, duh!)
NO!!!!
Sometimes it's a short, sharp (and,I admit it - pretty cute and funny) "no" - just for the heck of it, even though he means yes - i.e. "D, come get some milk." "No!" as he runs into the kitchen to get his milk ![]()
Sometimes it's a loud wail as if his life is coming to an end - i.e. when I went to pick him up today, he was on the other side of the classroom, and another little boy came up to give me a hug, DS came running toward the us screaming "Nooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (He's super touchy/ emotional due to teething right now anyway - that definitely doesn't help.)
We make a point to not ask yes/no questions (either make a statement or offer 2 choices), so as not to invite the word, but it doesn't seem to matter.
Any advice on how to stop or "correct" this behavior? I'm really tempted to try to tell him that "no" is a bad word!, but I know that he needs to learn proper use of it so that's not the answer. . . .
Re: How to stop the "no"s?
Photo by Zemya Photography
I do not have an answer - but I wanted to note that Sam is in some ways the opposite. He says "yeah" or "yes" to everything (we even have the book "No, No, Yes, Yes" which he calls "yesyes"), but to my knowledge has never said "no." He manages to convey the sentiment just fine by tantrums, shaking the head, screaming etc
and sometimes I wish he would just say "no" to milk instead of throwing the cup I hand him.
I think they just latch on to something that is meaningful and that they can say... and roll with it. Even if the context isn't right! Toddlers are just weird
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we basically eliminated the no stage by not saying no. We just tried to strike the word from our vocabulary.
When we needed to correct him, we just didnt use the word. For example, Ethan, we use the blocks for stacking, when he threw them or if he would sign or ask or more, if there was a reason we needed to say no, we would yes, you can have some more puffs tomorrow.
No climbing would become You like to climb, but chairs are for sitting
Up (asking to be picked up) would be, Yes, I will pick you up as soon as my hands are empty
If he was touching something dangerous, we clapped once and called his name and just said danger (go ahead and laugh, we did at first, but let me tell you, after him screaming NONONONONO we were willing to try anything!)
It sounds lame and simple, but it worked!