~ Lingo ~

• We don’t say “Stop Yelling” we say, “Use our inside voices”
• We don’t say “No Running Inside”, we say, “Use your walking legs”
• We don’t say “Why are you acting like this” we say, “You need to use your self-control”
• We don’t say “Pay attention”, we say, “Use your listening ears”.
• We don’t say “Don’t sit on the table”, we say, “We always sit on chairs.”
• We don’t say “No hitting”, we say, “I can tell you are angry. We tell our friends that we are angry with our words, not our hands”. In general we want the children to use “words” to verbally express wants/needs, etc. instead of biting, taking things away from others; and also to express feelings of being angry, sad, disappointed, instead of whining and crying.
• “NO” - We avoid using the word “NO”.

Other phrases

• “Excuse me, did you forget to …..?”
• “This behavior is unacceptable, I can not allow you to (hurt your friend) (tear the book) (disturb the group)”
• “You are big enough: to tell your body to stay in your chair….to tell your hands not to hit…
• “Tell your hands to be gentle”