Another excerpt from Michael Grose's free e-book on communicting with kids:
The following are simple, non-judgemental statements that place the responsibility on to children to cooperate with you. Keep the statements short and to the point. When we go lengthy with our words we tend to get personal.
1. Describe what you see or the problem.
This type of statement really is an invitation for a child to do something: e.g.‘
The living room looks really messy.’Some kids will respond favourably but many won’t. So try……
2.
Give children information.The bare minimum information is sometimes sufficient for some kids to respond: e.g.
‘The living room needs to be cleaned before we have dinner.’