5 Powerful Strategies to Lower Your Child/Teen's Defiance

If your child or teen is defiant, here are five powerful strategies to lower his or her defiant behavior:

1. Realize that understanding your defiant child is just as important as loving him. No adult complains about being too understood as a child.

2. Avoid yelling at your child. Yelling only fans the flames of defiance.

3. Resist power struggles. Defiant children believe they are equal in authority to adults. This makes it futile to try to beat them in the power struggle game.

4. Learn the art of being calm, firm, and non-controlling.

5. Reinforce your child's compliant behaviors. The more positive attention he gets for being compliant, the less negative attention he'll look for by being defiant.

These are just a few of the many tips and strategies that can be found in Dr Jeffrey Bernstein's book, 10 Days To A Less Defiant Child, Perseus Books, 2006. Click here to follow Dr. Jeff on Twitter .

Dr. Jeffrey Bernstein is a psychologist, personal and executive coach, and motivational speaker in the greater Philadelphia area. He has been on the Today Show, International Radio, and has written four popular books, including 10 Days to a Less Defiant Child.