The first step in calming a tantrum is to let the child know that their message is understood. Once the toddler knows that the parent understands, the parent can then bring in their own agenda.

The fast food rule teaches parents to repeat their toddler's emotions back to the toddler, much like a fast food worker will repeat an order to make sure it is correct. This shows the toddler that a parent truly understands and acknowledges how he feels.

Dr. Karp teaches parents to see themselves as a caring, respectful, but tough ambassador to their toddlers. As an parental ambassador of the 21st century to a neanderthal-like toddler, a parent needs to learn how to communicate and then translate what they want into a way toddlers can understand.

Like a neanderthal, toddlers spit and scratch, hate to wait, want to do everything themselves, throw food, and wipe their noses on their hands and sleeves.

Toddlers walk like cavemen, talk like cavemen, and when they get upset they "go ape".

Toddlers are wonderful and very loving, but act much like as if they were little cavemen.

Living with a toddler is like taking a trip into the distant, primitive past.

Many adults try to calm their toddlers with reason and logic, but toddlers don't respond the way adults would respond when upset. Instead, toddlers should be thought of and then spoken to as if they were a pint-sized caveman.

During this video, Dr. Karp will discuss three important points: thinking of a toddler as a little caveman, the fast food rule, and speaking "toddler-ese".

Dr. Karp developed these methods over many years while treating toddlers at his pediatric medical practice. Dr. Karp now visits with parents in their home and in classes to show them how to help their children become the happiest toddler on the block.

Using a few simple methods, parents can eliminate many tantrums and boost their toddler's sense of independence, cooperation, and respect.

Dr. Karp taught parents how to calm and soothe their babies in the DVD "The Happiest Baby" by using techniques to trigger the calming reflex. Now he shares an amazing and fun new way to help toddlers.

For 30 years, pediatrician Dr. Harvey Karp has been helping parents take care of their children.

Parents wonder what they should do when their toddler gets sad, mad or throws huge tantrums. Is it possible to teach toddlers how to be happy, cooperative, and respectful?

Around a child's first birthday, he will begin walking, climbing, yanking and screaming. He will start to develop his own opinions that may be contrary to his parent's.

"The Happiest Toddler" offers parents real solutions to the challenges of raising toddlers. Parents will learn how to calm outbursts, stop tantrums before they begin, and build loving and respectful relationships with their children.