What do you do with a 2yr old who says 'NO' to everything good and bad?

[CharleeInChains]

DS2 was 2 a few weeks ago and seriously i have heard him say yes about 3 times in his life.

He says NO to everythin wether good -

'DS do you want to play x,y,z?' NO!

or bad

'DS let's all play tidy up with the cars' NO

It is literally his reply to everything! Along with DONT/WONT and SHANT

Apart from this he has a really wide vocabulary and can say an awful lot of words/scentences.

How would you respond to this?

When ds did this (same age!) I used to change the question: do you want to do x or y, and try and limit yes/no questions. I think he was saying it as an automatic response rather than thinking about it, so I tried to make him think. Sort of worked. When a bit older I'd say first thing in the morning "today is going to be a YES day! What's the word of the day?" and we'd shout YES!!! and I'd tickle him to make him laugh. Whenever he needed reminding during the rest of the day I'd ask what the word of the day was, and when he said "yes" we'd have tickling and giggles. That seemed to help a bit too!

It will pass

He can come over here and talk to my 2yo DD who also says no all the time. Especially since she's had this bug, when it's been tearful, whingey nos.

Seriously, she started saying no to everything almost on her second birthday (now 2.5). Used to argue the toss with her, now I just say 'OK, well I'm going to go anyway/play with the toy myself/eat it myself'. If it's something that she has no choice about, I now tell her what we're doing instead of asking her if she wants to.

She no longer does it all the time - it will pass!

Haha, thats the thing - i can ask 'DS what would you like for your dinner?' and i get a big fat NO!

Go off and do it anyway - DD (25mths) has expanded "no" to "don't want it xxx" (e.g. "Don't want it go to sleep tonight") but with things that she does in fact want if we carry on without her she will catch up pretty quickly.

OTOH, she has also started saying "want it NOW" and stamping her foot

Yep, that's my DS at the moment. I worked so hard with DD not to keep saying 'no' and sure enough it paid off. (she rarely uttered the word)

But with your second you just don't have time for 'no' avoidance. I wouldn't mind, but it's his stock answer for everything, good and bad.