Why don't they listen to me

One thing to keep in mind, when talking to a child about something that they have done wrong, is the fact that they actually may not even understand half the conversation that you have with them.
Don't get me wrong kids are truly smart. But sometimes all it takes is just one word that they don't understand or misinterpret, and the whole meaning of the conversation can change.

At work one day I had gone over to a child that had done something very minor, but even before I had reached him he started looking down as he though he was in trouble. So I said straight away "it's ok your not in trouble", and straight away he burst into tears. I figured out that he didn't understand the very simple word "not", so basically he heard "your in trouble".
I got to thinking about the word "not" and when you listen to people talking, we don't use that word a whole lot as we generally shorten it, Don't, Didn't, Cant, Hasn't etc etc, you get the picture.
It does change though, when a child is in trouble, what people usually say, instead of "don't" is "Do NOT do that again" and the word "not" has a whole new meaning, "NOT" is now, nearly always an anger word.
I've found that thinking about what I say when trying to talk to any aged child, really helps them to understand what is happening.