How do you keep a 1-year-old from heading toward the VCR? What should you do when your preschooler throws a fit? How can you get your adolescent to respect your authority? Approaches that work with your stubborn toddler won't be very effective with your rebellious teen. Find out here how to vary your approach to discipline to best fit your family.

Ages 0 to 2
How do you discipline a child this age? Knowing that babies and toddlers are naturally curious, the best way to discipline a young child is to eliminate temptations. Keep his environment relatively free of no-nos - items such as VCRs, stereos, jewelry, and especially cleaning supplies and medications should be kept well out of his reach. When your crawling baby or roving toddler heads toward an unacceptable or dangerous play object, calmly say, "No," and redirect him by either removing him from the area or engaging his attention with an appropriate activity.

Timeouts can be effective discipline for toddlers when simply redirecting their attention won't work. A child who has been hitting, biting, or throwing food, for example, should be told why that behavior is unacceptable and taken to a designated timeout area - a kitchen chair or bottom stair - for a minute or two to calm down (longer timeouts are not effective for toddlers).

Never spank, hit, or slap a child of any age. Babies and toddlers are especially unlikely to be able to make any connection between their behavior and physical punishment. They will only feel the pain of the hit.

And don't forget, children learn by watching you. Make sure your behavior is role-model material. You will make a much stronger impact on your child if he sees you putting your belongings away, too, rather than if you just tell him to pick up his toys while you leave your stuff strewn across the kitchen counter.