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Hitting, kicking, biting, rude behavior, whining, giving the biggest hug ever–all are examples of aggressive behavior in toddlers.
Stay Calm: try to practice emotional regulation for your child. Because when a child is expressing a lot of emotion and parents meet that with the same amount of emotion, this could increase child aggression. 1 Watching you losing your cool is exciting and immensely entertaining for your child. 2
Be assertive. The best reaction is to react minimally, and simply tell your child that what he is doing is not ok. Either redirect your toddler’s attention or swiftly remove him/her from the scene. 2
Discourage aggressive play. Supervise your child to figure out when violence sneaks into his play. Once your kid starts to make her doll hit other dolls, she’s one step away from acting out the deed in real life. Calmly intervene when you see your child playing in a violent way, and tell her that this is not nice.2
Limit exposure to violence. Letting children play with violent toys or watch violent shows can lead them to believe that violence is an acceptable physical behavior. Do your best to limit his/her exposure to toy weapons, the local news on TV, violent video games, all of which could give your little one dangerous ideas.2
Offer a physical release. Help your toddler channel the anger, energy or frustration by encouraging him /her to participate in a nonharmful mode of release, like kicking a ball or hitting a beanbag.2
Dr. Lydia Serhal
Pediatric Gastroenterologist, Hepatologist, and Allergologist
