In Part 1 I talked about the psychological effects that negative comments have on children. In this post I am talking about the opposite, how you can use positive reinforcement to change and influence the behavior of your child.

This is the central concern of Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change a new book by Timothy D. Wilson, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. Professor Wilson shows us how positive reinforcement can influence the unconscious mind on decision-making, preferences and behavior.

I recently watched a movie called The Judge in which there was a scene where a child asked her father if her grandpa was dead. She had overheard a conversation between her parents where her dad said that his dad was “dead to him” and as a child would, she misinterpreted that to mean that her grandpa literally was dead.

How often do we say things around our kids in jest or using sarcasm? Making negative comments (however unintentional) around little children can be psychologically damaging as I discovered firsthand…