I had one child that a time-out had to be away from people (my extrovert), and one for whom it needed to be a tight embrace (my introvert). Not a hug, really, but a tight hold to let him get control of his overwhelming emotions. We started them as soon as emotions ran high, so earlier than 29 months, I'm sure.
In both cases, we treated it as a "time out from the opportunity to do what you're doing until you can control yourself." When self-control returned, the time out ended. Period. None of that "1 minute per year of age" stuff. To me, that's about punishment, and that's not positive discipline. I focused on the time out strictly as a tool for getting past the overwhelming emotions, which is why they were acting out. I wanted to reward self-control, since to me, that's the ultimate goal of a time out.
We rarely use time outs now, since even the 4.5yo is much more able to manage his emotions. If they are overwhelmed now, it's usually because they are hungry or tired. Then I give them a time out while I get a snack together.
Kriston, it sounds like you were rather satisfied with the results? Maybe this has been my problem all these years??? My kids all tend toward being introverted - in some cases to the extreme - and time outs really have never worked (not that I have stopped trying). Now ds2 (2y10m) has taken to having some of the biggest tantrums I've ever seen, and it's clearly a complete loss of control (last time he ended up stripping naked and trying to go outside when it was cold). I'm sure he'd yell and scream if I tried to hold him, and he's pretty strong (and I'm a little bit preggo and often holding the baby besides) so it's not a very appealing strategy at the moment but I suppose it's worth a try! Most of the time he's very good but once in awhile we run into trouble. Thanks for the introversion/extroversion tip!
