Your 6-Year-Old: Unattractive habits

Unattractive habits

Even happy-go-lucky 6-year-olds sometimes engage in irksome（令人側目的） personal habits, like hair gnawing or scab picking. These are usually an unconscious way of dealing with stressors — not necessarily hugely stressful events, but the accumulation of little things that can be challenging, like trying to be good all day long. Fortunately these common quirks（怪癖） go away on their own, especially if your reaction is downplayed.
哇！！這篇文章真是說中我心聲了！小馨最近出現的怪癖很難不去正視，例如她最常咬指甲，上星期六圍棋比賽後，老師正在頒獎，就看她一直咬指甲，平常我雖然沒看到她上課的樣子，但我想應該也是這樣，還有會一直搖頭...種種都是上面文字敘述的，屬於壓力的一種表現，而這種壓力來自於想要表現好的一種累積表現，而且是不自覺的動作....我深深覺得太有道理了！

Your 6-year-old now
Hair twisting, nail biting, nose picking, and shirt gnawing are just a few of the annoying habits 6-year-olds develop. Your child isn't out to irk you. Such habits are a way of coping with stress. Nagging to stop is actually counterproductive. It only draws negative attention to the habit, making your child more nervous and attached to it.
用手指頭捲頭髮、咬指甲、挖鼻孔、咬衣服....都是很常見6歲小孩的動作，這些動作都是一種應付壓力的方式，如果去嘮叨這種行為，反而容易適得其反，哈哈！媽媽我就是這樣，常常叮囑她不要咬指甲。Instead, talk about it in a more casual way. Identify the habit and offer rational reasons for stopping, ones that are clear and understandable to a 6-year-old. "Picking your nails can give you an infection that could hurt." Or "You've been growing out your hair for a long time now. But if you keep chewing on it, we may have to cut it because it's not a polite thing to do."

Enlist your child's help in coming up with ways to stop. Suggest a secret wink or hand motion to signal him when he's chewing on his shirt, for example. Offer positive reinforcement: If he can keep his shirt out of his mouth for a month, you'll buy him that sports jersey he's been begging for.
要用方式制止她不再咬指甲，上述文字是建議可以鼓勵（獎勵）方式，但我覺得這個方式對小馨似乎沒有多大作用....

Most of these unpleasant habits disappear as kids get older and learn other ways to handle anxiety. Peer pressure will help, too. Not too many kids let their classmates get away with picking their noses.
或許當小孩漸漸長大，有了同儕壓力後就會擺脫掉這些壞習慣。

Your life now
Your child's longer attention span allows him to extend a play theme over a few days or across multiple playdates now. Try to set aside a place in your house for your child to leave out things he's working on, such as art projects, forts or playhouses, or block cities.