When I was in college and taking one of my many Early Childhood classes, I remember this one comment one of my professors said.

First and Last

She said that children take a lot longer to process words than adults do (they may need up to 30 seconds to process and respond).  Also, most people (even children) pay the most attention to the first and the last thing that is said.  So one (usually) effective way to get kids to pay attention is to use a structured sentence.

Sentence

The sentence needs to start with the verb/action that you want to stop.  Then the last word in the sentence needs to be “stop.”   So:  “____ (action) needs to stop!”

Examples

Hitting needs to stop.

Yelling needs to stop.

Running needs to stop.

Jumping off the furniture needs to stop.

Running in the hallway needs to stop.

Pointers

• Do NOT use this every time you want your children to stop doing something, it will lose it’s effectiveness.
• Use it at times that are very important or when you are at your wits end!
• Say the sentence with a stern face and a firm voice.

This is a sign that my oldest made (quite a few months ago) and taped on the hallway wall to remind his brother and sister to stop running in the hallway!