I like kidsrme's suggestion about the activities. Also, Chosen made a great point.
Ask the parents what they do to discipline and use their plan.
Another plan that works:
When a child hits or takes a toy:
1. Remove the child from the same area as the other child and give them a busy toy. Tell that child "You'll have to play over here for a little bit. That wasn't very nice" or something to that effect.
2. After a few minutes, go to the child and say "Are you ready to play nicely now?" If they say yes, let them play with the other child. If they say no, say "It looks like you still need to play over here for a while."
3.Repeat step 2 every few minutes until the child says yes.
Each time you talk to the child, bend down to their level and look into their eyes. This helps a child relate to an adult better. This way they are behaving, not out of fear, but out of understanding and trust.
If this doesn't work, you can try something similar, but with time-outs. However, I have found that with toddlers, time-outs don't work as well. They often don't understand or forget too quickly what they did wrong and why they're in time-out.
Also, remember to intervene right away because the more time that passes after the incident, the likelier it is for the toddler to forget about what they just did. Once they forget, the discipline implemented is useless.
Mommy2Lots wrote:Each time you talk to the child, bend down to their level and look into their eyes. This helps a child relate to an adult better. This way they are behaving, not out of fear, but out of understanding and trust.
No problem.
I agree that people often forget this small, but important technique.