unruly toddler!

[Louise40]

My otherwise angelic 21-month-old goes around scratching the faces of other toddlers and children. She doesn't seem to do it when she's with her childminder so it seems to be something she's doing for my or my husband's benefit. We tell her off and make her say sorry to the child and if appropriate make her sit on a "naughty step". All this I feel is making a big issue of it and I suspect that's the bit she likes! But how else could I react? Impossible to ignore when there's another child involved. It's got to the point when I feel I can't take her to playgroups etc! Anyone else dealt with this effectively?

you are right to think children learn to like the attention. They learn that any attention is better than none, even if it's negative attention. I work with children and i would say try to catch her "being good", and when she does hurt another child, put all your attention on to the injured child, whilst ignoring your child. It really does work. I use this every day. When she is being good, give her a sticker and lots of praise.

Thanks for that! Will try it!