Ask Our Experts   How can I get my son to stop hitting his
sister?  My 5 1/2 year old son is very very mean to his little
sister. She is 4 and he will hit her constantly, take her things
and do whatever he can to make her cry. It seems as though he
enjoys it. He finds is all funny. Time outs, raising my voice,
even a spanking has not helped. It is driving me crazy.
Sometimes he leaves bruises.  Submitted by gotthewife  When a
young child hits others, the following interventions are often
helpful:   Work on increasing the opposite, positive behaviors. 
Let’s say a child engages in 10 behaviors in an hour: five
“good” and five “bad”.  If we increase his “good” behaviors to
6, by default there is less time for “bad” ones, and so the 10
behaviors then becomes 6 “good” and 4 “bad”.  The more positive
behaviors such as sharing and treating a sibling nicely that a
child engages in, the fewer instances of hitting he should have,
as a person can not be cooperating and fighting at the same time
(well, I guess unless he