Robaggio

Whenever things were crucial (i.e. running out into the street as a toddler), my parents made it very clear that things were serious. They did this through spanking. Not hard spanking, but enough to convey the message in a language a toddler could understand. That language was pain, and the message was "You think this hurts? Imagine what a car would do to you!" The key point here is that the spanking was associated with those rational words. I was able to understand why my parents were spanking me and why the street was bad.

I am entirely thankful that my parents were so tactful with their use of "language". Because of this, I was able to understand words at a much younger age. I was having high-end conversations, no, discussions when most kids were still running out into the street with their parents yelling and screaming after them.

So, I guess to offer you a strategy it would be to spank. Unfortunatly spanking has such a bad reputation these days. It must be done sparingly and in the right situation. Toddlers can't differentiate when you're yelling to stop them from running into the street or to stop misbehaving. The key is to get the toddler to understand that a Street = Bad. The best language to convey that message, for the sake of their own life, is to spank. It depends on the child I suppose. It worked fine for me with no negative effects- I grew up playing bloody and violent videogames, and I was spanked when I did things VERY wrong. Yet, I'm probably the least violent male out of anyone I know- I'm arrogant and lazy, but that's hardly the result of spanking