How to Get Children to Listen

Patti Cancellier: My name is Patti Cancellier, and I'm the Education Coordinator and a Parent Educator at the Parent Encouragement Program in Kensington, Maryland. I'm going to talk about the question, why don't my kids listen to me which is the most common complaint expressed by parents in our parenting classes at the Parent Encouragement Program. Why don't kids listen? Why are kids today less compliant than we remember being when we were growing up? And why we do have to ask our children more than once to do a task or complete a job they need to do?

There are a couple of reasons why parents face this challenge today. I'll talk about those reasons and why some of the techniques our parents used to parent us no longer work as well with our children today. I'll also gives you tips and techniques that will help you foster cooperative behavior in your children, because after all cooperation is what we're looking for. We want our children to do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done. You don't need much to get started, just some patience and a willingness to try new techniques.

But before we begin, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I've worked as a Parent Educator for 18 years at the Parent Encouragement Program. I started as a desperate parent taking a class at PEP, and I liked the approach so much because it brought harmony to my home that I decided to trying to teach the classes. I also have a Masters in Public Health and Health Education, and have worked in the field of adult education in some form for over 30 years. So let's get started, getting your kids listening to you .