2 year old daily transitions

[Mellowbee]

Hi,

To cut a long story short our dd is a nightmare when it’s time to transition from one activity to another, even if it’s something she wants to do.

As an example if we are at home and then want to go the park for a walk behaviour can range from running away and refusing to her shoes on to hitting and biting.

I know this is normal toddler behaviour but we want to reduce the amount of drama. Any top tips for how to help us get from one activity to another as hassle free as possible? How do you do things differently if it’s doing something they’d enjoy and something they won’t?

Do you do warnings? Count downs ?

Do you offer them any degree of choice?

eg "We are going out in 5 minutes, have a think if you want to wear your scarf or not when we put our shoes on in a few minutes" ..... the important things are going to happen. Fact. but they still have a choice.

"It is bed time in 5 minutes, do you want Daddy to read your story tonight or me?" or "It is bedtime in 5 minutes, do you want to walk up the stairs or have me carry you?" Again, the important bit are being stated factually, but the child still feels they have some autonomy.

Agree with PP - count downs and choices have really worked for us. We use a countdown timer on YouTube and have to race against the clock to get ready.

Other things that have helped:
Discussing our day plans first thing/over breakfast so DS knows what we are doing ("after we've got ready we'll go in the car to the park, after lunch we'll walk to nanny's house")

Getting out straight after breakfast or lunch or nap (when he napped) so there's a natural break. I find it very difficult to get DS out the house if he's happily settled in with his toys.

Yes, lots of time to prepare for the transition, and explaining the steps.

Also empathising with them that they have to stop what they are doing and go somewhere else really helps.

For 2 yo, it's hard because they are told to do things a lot of the time. If you can give them plenty of notice, explain why & let them know you understand it's hard to eg stop playing with their cars & get their shoes on, it really helps.

Agree with the above and another thing that really helped us with DS was making things into a game. Eg race up the stairs, race each other to get dressed (slightly older), can you do X by the time i count to 20.