Jose Grajeda and his daughter, Victoria, cuddle before bedtime in Alpine, Tex. When Grajeda was a kid, he remembers how his parents employed a soothing caress to send him to sleep. Now he uses it with his kids. "You scratch someone's back, or their head, with the tip of your fingers. And you do it very lightly and softly," Grajeda explains. (Jessica Lutz /for NPR)
When it comes to settling down young children, parenting advice focuses mostly on one tool: What to say.
If the toddler starts to have a tantrum, say this. If a child can't go to sleep, say that. And if you wind up yelling in the process, well, there's even a script for how to apologize.
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