Proven Methods Of Child Discipline

The world we live in today is a very competitive place. There is a constant competition going on to find jobs and move up the ladder of success. As human beings we are naturally devoted to instilling some kind of success in our children. To ensure that children are successful in life they need to be well disciplined but also socially and morally developed human beings. It is the parent’s duty to keep their children well disciplined along with giving them the opportunity to develop socially and morally. But how is it possible to approach this task correctly? Using proven methods of discipline through reasoning, positive and negative reinforcement, and observational learning one can effectively discipline their children without risking damage to the child’s social and moral development.

Research has shown that using reasoning as a method for discipline more often helps develop a child’s ability to conform to the standards of what is considered right or just behaviour. Discipline derives from the Latin word “disciplinare” meaning “to teach”. Thus, reasoning can be used as an effective tool to teach your children right from wrong. As opposed to the “We’re doing it this way because I say so method” through reasoning a parent is able to convey the importance of socially acceptable behaviour to the child. The main emphasis of reasoning is to provide your child with clear and straight forward guidelines of acceptable behaviour, to explain the consequences of good and bad behaviour and also to convey to your child why the consequences are necessary. 1 on 1 sit downs are important in helping your child to understand these concepts. A recent university study involving over 100 children and their parents showed that disciplining children i...

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...ly is! Parents must motivate children to act correctly while giving them an understanding of why it is so important. Parents must increase good behaviour and decrease bad behaviour without risking any damage to the child’s moral development. This can all be achieved by parents through reasoning with children, by setting specific guidelines of good/bad behaviour and making sure children understand the consequences of their actions, through positive and negative reinforcement, by rewarding and praising good behaviour and reprimanding privileges for bad behaviour, and also through observational learning, where the parents themselves have to be role models of acceptable behaviour for the children. Punishment is not a proven method of child discipline. Although it is very effective in the short term it will lead to bigger problems in children’s development down the road.