Spanking and using time-outs are usually used as a form of punishment in terms of taming a bad behavior in children. According to the director of Yale Parenting Center, however, punishment does not usually change a child's behavior.
The director of Yale Parenting Center, Alan Kazdin said that imposing punishment does not usually lead to reversing a child's bad and unruly behavior, The Atlantic reported. Though disciplining the child through spanking and time-out may soothe the parent's disappointment, but it does not necessarily change the child's behavior.
Kazdin cited that one of the best ways to eliminate the negative behavior of the child is to use the "radical technique" of discipline. It can be achieved though positive reinforcement until the negative behavior would eventually be eliminated.
"Parents might start out reasoning, but they're likely to escalate to something a little bit more, like shouting, touching, firmly dragging their child, even if they're well-intentioned." Kazdin pointed out. The way to get rid of a child's negative behavior is not to do the punishment. Even a wonderful punishment, gentle punishment like time-out, or reasoning, those don't work."
Kazdin then explained the process on how the positive reinforcement works. He explained that the behavior can be corrected by focusing on three aspects which is similar to cause and effect.
"What it amounts to is an area of research that's called applied behavior analysis, and what it focuses on are three things to change behavior: What comes before the behavior, how you craft the behavior, and then what you do at the end," Kazdin explained.
Parents also added that imposing time-out as a form of punishment does not necessarily work. Dr. Burt Banks cited that placing the child on a time-out would eventually end with a heated argument as the child couldn't keep still.
Banks then pointed out that most misbehavior done by toddlers are a result of attention seeking. He stated that one of the best ways to have the behavior corrected is to completely ignore the child.
"A lot of misbehavior in children is done to get attention," Dr. Banks said. Scolding gives them the attention they are seeking. It was actually the worst thing I could do."
