Offering choices for toddlers and preschoolers is very important, but needs to be done well. Giving choices is so effective because it helps young children feel like they have some power in their lives, which they desperately want. It also helps them comply happily to requests, because they are the ones choosing. Here are some tips for effectively offering choices to kids:
1. Offer two choices. Chocolate or vanilla, this shirt or that shirt, apple or banana. Kids can handle two options, but they get overwhelmed and stressed by too many options.
2. Make sure you can live with both choices you offer. Never offer a choice you can't live with, and decide before you offer it.
3. Use choice to help get the required daily things done. Here are some examples: Would you like to go potty now or in one minute? Would you like to clean up the puzzle first or the paints?
Would you like to brush teeth before or after putting pajamas on?
4. Offer choice very frequently, but not always. Kids need to learn that sometimes they don't get a choice. Meals might be a time when they don't get a choice, but always have one thing on their plate you know they like.
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