How to stop a bad habit?

Having raised a child with OCD I have tell you that a mothers job is certainly not easy. Firstly I would never scold him as if he is doing something wrong. As an eight year old boy he is not really sure what wrong really is. For instance yelling and screaming making him feel bad as if he has done something wrong only leads him to confusion. When ever he is reaching for his private area you must casually say no you cannot do this as this is viewed by people as wrong. Explain that people misunderstand and that his friends will laugh and make fun of this action. It must be a consistent task on your part, which is so hard to do. I worked daily with my son as I did not want to alter his brain with medication, there were days I did not believe I could do it any longer but my son now graduated college last May with a 4.0 GPA. So when I say to you always consistently work with your son explaining why things are wrong they eventually get an understanding. When we shunt them from a habit they really don't understand and continue to do it as to draw attention. Good luck with this and you say he is eight so there will be many more habits they pick up within the years.

that is something to be worried about. you need to distract him, or tell him that the habit is not good to look at. if he asks why, then maybe you can tell the consequences or what other people could possibly think.

Hi, It will be an issue if he keeps doing it for the rest of his life. YOu can start telling him to stop doing this bad habit,talk to him nicely and tell him the consequence of him having this bad habit. He might injured his private part and people will laugh at him. It may takes time to him to get rid off this bad habit,slowly let him adjust to it. Reward him when he does it well!!

I can't help but wonder if this might be something that he is doing to try to get attention. If it is an attention seeking method, then the very best thing that you would be able to do would be to completely ignore the behavior. You see, for children that are looking to seek attention, it doesn't matter to them whether it is positive attention or negative attention and thus if you are to give him any kind of attention for this, it is reinforcing the behavior. I would try to ignore it and see if the behavior subsides.

hi,lindaharding. Maybe you need find out the reason why your 8 year old son grabed the private part.is it real a habit or is it something wrong with the part? If it is nothing wrong, you can tell your son the harm if he does that.Maybe it needs a long time for your 8 year old son understand the harm,you can tell him if he keeps on doing that,his classmate may make fun of him and he will have no friends to play.Maybe it is effective because the kids fear for no friend. I am single and i have no son,I can't offer your practical suggestions for you. In a word,it is a bad habit and you must stop it in a right way.Good luck!