Early Childhood Discipline Techniques

The subject of discipline is very broad and controversial. Parents often question which methods are the best for effectively disciplining children. Some believe in more physical methods while others strictly oppose these methods. There are however some proven techniques that can dramatically increase the effectiveness of your discipline strategies, whatever your position on discipline may be. The goal after all, is not to raise the most obedient children but to raise confident, responsible individuals capable of making sensible decisions.

Secondly, keep the consequence or punishment relative to the behavior. Suppose you pull out the couch to vacuum and discover that your child has decorated the back of your couch with marker. A punishment from the television really doesn't relate to the crime at all. Alternatively, requiring your child to help clean the couch and putting the markers away for a certain period of time would be a better option. Rather than punishing to punish, this teaches your child that the decisions he or she makes will have consequences and that poor choices are going to have negative consequences. In this case, your child is being held responsible to clean up his/her own mess and cannot use markers for a period of time as a result of the decision to color the couch.

Thirdly, follow through with the consequence. There are two ways to ensure follow through. Number one, don't threaten anything that you are not prepared to follow through with. Making threats without follow through discredits your commitment to discipline. You're not the only one who knows that you can't ground your child from television for life, your child knows this too. So, in addition to preventing you from following through with the outrageous punishment you just dished out, you're setting yourself up for giving in, which brings us to the second way to ensure follow through; stick to the entire punishment. If you dish out a two week ban from video games, don't give in after three days. Your child has to know that you mean what you say and you say what you mean. This has two advantages, your child will be less likely to push the envelope just to see if your serious and you'll be setting an example for him or her to do the same.

The fourth technique is to be consistent. Children crave and thrive on consistency, it gives them a sense of security and knowing what is expected of them makes it easier for them to follow directions. If you laugh at your youngster for repeating a naughty word, he's going to repeat it again in anticipation of your amusement. This is because children (and adults too) pay attention to the reactions of others to determine appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Reacting differently each time is not only going to send mixed messages about which behaviors you deem acceptable, it is also going to make it difficult for him to understand why you laughed the first time but told not to repeat it the second time.

Whatever discipline methods you decide are best for your family, keep in mind the ultimate goal of discipline; to raise individuals capable of making decisions that will best benefit them when they are faced with the tough decisions they're bound to encounter in adolescence and adulthood. After all, those are the times when you're not going to be there to force them to make the best choice. Keeping these objectives in mind will help you determine which methods will most effectively produce beneficial results.