Say no to Harsh Discipline
A. Gautam
It is more important to focus on teaching good behavior rather than punishing bad behavior. Disciplining should be more about flourishing good behavior and not just overcoming bad behavior. Experts warn that the approach that least works is spanking and harsh words. Physical violence and verbal harshness can have lasting effect on children’s health.
A cycle
Psychologists claim that parents and caregivers should avoid violence at all costs. Spanking and hitting only causes children to be aggressive and angry. Children’s focus is not on the lessons to be learned but on the bitter feeling of being punished. A study of children in 20 American cities showed that the more children were spanked, the more they misbehaved. The biggest lesson a child who is often spanked learns is that it is okay to hurt someone you love when frustrated. In turn, these children tend to hit others when people do not give them what they want.
Long-term effects of spanking or hitting
Because small children are the most difficult to reason with, they are at the greatest risk of being physically punished. For the same reason, small children are at a great risk for injury. Children under 18 months of age may suffer injuries of the brain and the body. Studies also show that children who are spanked exhibit greater levels of hormones due to toxic stress. When young adults, who were regularly spanked as kids, were studied, their brains showed a significant change. They had less gray matter, which in turn indicates low self-control and lower score on IQ tests.
Negative effects of harsh words
Using harsh or negative words and yelling at children causes great harm. Emotional injuries may last longer than physical injuries. When children get older, this form of discipline is more common. This is the time when children are rapidly developing emotionally, which makes verbal abuse a doubly bad practice. Children often subjected to harsh words are at great risk of developing behavioral problems and even depression. Grown-ups may forget the point of disciplining is to teach something good when too caught up in using force to control a misbehaving child. It is important to remember that a child is a person still in the making and to discipline with care and caution.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 1.
Disciplining should be more about flourishing good behavior and not just overcoming bad behavior.
What does flourishing mean in this article?
Responses
A Growing or developing wellGrowing or developing well
B Learning or adapting wellLearning or adapting well
C Listening to and obeying eldersListening to and obeying elders
D Showing good acts and waysShowing good acts and ways
1 answer
3 answers