What bad habits do preschool children have? This is thumb sucking, masturbation, twirling hair on a finger, nail/pencil biting, biting/licking lips, etc. This is regular, uncontrolled behavior by a child in response to a specific situation. Each bad habit carries a specific, specific task. It can serve a child as a sedative, as a remedy for boredom, as a way to attract attention, etc. One day, a mother came to me with a request to help her rid her daughter of a bad habit - twirling her hair on her finger before bed. To begin with, we found out together what caused the bad habit and what its purpose was. Monitoring the child for at least 3-4 days helps a lot in these matters. During observation, you can track at what point the child exhibits a bad habit and suggest the reason for its use. In our case, the girl loved to watch cartoons before and after bedtime, and could not fall asleep for a long time. I fell asleep only after a few minutes of twirling my hair on my finger. From this we can assume that cartoons before bedtime put the child in an excited state, and the process of twirling hair on a finger calms and relaxes. The habit carries with it regularity. Therefore, I recommended that my mother replace one regularity with another. For example, if a child twirls her hair on her finger before falling asleep, invite her to go to bed with a soft, pleasant-to-touch toy in her hands. Let her look at it carefully, touch every detail, study it. And as soon as the time comes for the child to sleep, we take this soft toy with us to bed. What kind of regularity/tradition/ritual the parents will replace the child’s bad habit with is decided by the parents and the child together. If the child was not comfortable sleeping with a soft toy (or the parents were against it), then you need to choose something else. Something that is suitable for both the child and the parents. What will be suitable for their family. I emphasize that the replacement regularity should perform the same task as the bad habit. For example, to calm down, “occupy” hands when bored, etc. So, mother and girl found a replacement for a bad habit - mother’s massage of palms and fingers, and eliminated watching cartoons before bed (replaced with reading fairy tales from pictures). Over time, the child’s bad habit disappeared. It’s possible to get rid of a bad habit, it’s not a death sentence. But the process is usually long. Parents will need to be patient. We agree?