Because reasoning with young children doesn't work, parents usually repeat the instruction over and over again. When you have to repeat the instruction, you may begin to feel frustrated and angry. Your child, who cannot reason, begins to feel that you do not like her because you give threats and yell at her. If you keep trying to reason with your young child, it can lower your child's self-esteem. As this process goes on, day after day, the parent gets more and more frustrated and the child develops a very poor self-image.
Children learn through repetition.
They must have the chance to practice the same thing over and over again. If your child needs to learn not to go into the street, she must be shown this lesson over and over again. Every time that she goes too near the street, she needs to be disciplined, in an unemotional way. Every time she starts to go toward the street, but stops short of doing so, she needs to be praised. After Jennifer has made 20 or 30 trips towards the street, with some trips resulting in discipline and some in praise, she will learn to stay out of the street.