Teach Your Children Well 181ample, tags in his clothing are bothersome, he’s having
difficulty verbalizing that concern. It would make sense
to help your child articulate his concern—perhaps “The
label is bothering me”—in order to circumvent the swear-
ing, screaming, and thrashing about that normally accom-
panies this frustration. Here’s how that might sound:
Parent: I’ve noticed that the labels in your clothing
bug you a lot.
Child: Yeah.
Parent: And I’ve noticed that it’s not so easy for you
to say that the labels are bugging you.
Child: It’s not?
Parent: Well, when the labels bother you, sometimes
you scream or say some words that aren’t very
nice.
Child: Oh, yeah.
Parent: So, I was thinking that maybe we could
come up with a way for you to say that the labels
are bugging you without you saying words that
aren’t very nice. Can you think of any ideas for
what you could say?Of course, since children do well if they can, we’d
have to assume that if the child already knew more ap-
propriate words, he’d already be using them. So be pre-
pared to offer a few suggestions: