Addressing the power of positive guidance in your home begins with age appropriateness. The strategy written here is to provide a positive discipline idea for parents to use in their unique circumstances. Positive guidance, as the essence of developmentally appropriate practice, requires enlightened judgment on your part. To reach a child’s mind, the family member guiding the behavior must capture the child’s heart. The social and emotional foundation of our children is a sake. You may already be familiar with some or all the titles to explain guidance's workings. There is mistaken behavior, guidance talks, three levels of conflict management, comprehensive guidance, liberation, and encouragement. If you are using some or all these techniques, I am only giving a name and voice to what makes you are fantastic parent and teacher.

Unfortunately, our cultural moral baggage negatively judges mistaken behaviors and our children. Knowing the difference between patience and understanding is just the beginning of a lifelong learning process. It is best to use the understanding approach. Start by investigating the situation first and asking yourself why the child is behaving in a certain way and what can you teach so that the child behaves differently next time. Do not be afraid of relearning your style. We all make mistakes but learning to manage them differently is the key. In the process of learning complex life skills of cooperation, conflict resolution, and acceptable expression of strong feelings, children like all of us, make mistakes too. Traditional discipline punishes children for having problems they cannot solve, while positive guidance teaches children to solve their problems in a socially acceptable way.

You are your child’s first nurturer therefore the practice of guidance, the creation, and maintenance of a positive learning environment for each child supports your nurturing function. When you give a child worth in and of themselves and apply positive guidance you will experience that most children tend towards good. (It is written in their hearts) The term “Torah” or “instruction” both being the root for discipline have been tainted with hundreds of years of harsh punishment in the name of correction. We must modify our perspective from being patient to being understanding and replace our practice of discipline with guidance.

Together let us understand bed wetting. Bedwetting usually refers to nocturnal incontinence or wetting the bed while sleeping. It can be caused by drinking fluids too late at night, small or weak bladders, smooth muscle weakness, a type of rheumatism, stress, fear, urinary tract infection, nutritional deficiencies, behavioral problems, emotional imbalances, allergies, fibroid tumors, prostate problems, diabetes, etc. Instead of punishing a child who wets the bed, we can change their diet. Make sure they are getting vitamin A, E, and B Complex, Zinc, Calcium, and Magnesium. We can add asparagus, avocado, beets, cabbage, celery, dandelion greens, grapes, mango, olives, radish, spinach, squash, strawberry, and watermelons to their daily diet too while simultaneously communicating and encouraging the child to get up and go to the bathroom when the sensation occurs. Through communication and investigation, it may be as simple as adding a night light so that it is not a dark journey to the appropriate destination.

Begin to use the power of progressive direction by being a good role model and demonstrating how you expect them to behave. Accept each child unconditionally and avoid judgment on them. Help them develop and use effective communication skills. Listen carefully and show them that you value their thoughts and ideas. Use instruction that is developmentally appropriate and based on natural or logical consequences. Use and enforce positive guidance consistently. Help children understand and express their feelings; encourage them to have empathy for others. Avoid harsh physical punishment and angry outbursts. Help children establish realistic goals, set elevated expectations for themselves, and have a positive outlook. Promote good critical thinking skills; help children make informed decisions. Reinforce children’s efforts with praise and encouragement. Give children responsibility; assign a household task. Involve children in activities outside of their home like gardening and encourage children to believe in themselves, and to feel confident rather than seeing themselves as failures or victims. All these ideas and techniques will help you help children increase their resilient behaviors.