Toddler throwing things!

[AlexandriaFlynn]

Hi all!

My son is 20 months and just this week his new thing is throwing toys across the room. He is not doing it in anger and isn't throwing it at anything or anyone. He seems to find it really fun - he lifts things above his head and throws them backwards. I've had things accidentally hit the telly and me in the face 🙈

Needs to stop but not sure how to explain that it's wrong? I think he's a bit confused as he sees me throwing a ball for the dog on walks etc and that's obviously ok so I don't think he knows the difference! As I said before it's not an anger thing, he's such a happy little boy.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Alex xx

My little boy started doing this at around the same age. He is now 22 months. He would throw toys and items he got his hands on really far and really hard and no matter what we said he still did it. It took a lot of repeating “please do not throw, no we don’t throw things, don’t throw your toys” etc and it didn’t really sink in. What did work was we started using words like “gently” and “carefully” when he did other things e.g. closing doors or moving things and putting them down. We would say put it down gently and carefully and then praise him when he did. Eventually it worked and the penny dropped that you don’t throw things (other than balls outdoors) and he stopped. It took a month or so though!

He also had incidents at nursery where he would throw large toys at children or across the room and they said the same as us, told him off but also explain. Explain that you don’t throw X item because you could hurt someone, break it etc.

It’s frustrating I know! I was surprised at how far a 20 month old could actually throw!