Disciplining Infants and Toddlers
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Parenting is an exercise in evolution. As your child grows you, the parent, need to continually reassess your discipline techniques to fit your child's age and level of development.
From birth to about 10 months of age there is very little discipline that is needed. Infants aren't capable of misbehaving yet as they don't yet have the ability to understand the concept of right and wrong. By the time the child is 12 months old they have developed the cognitive ability to understand that some behaviors are acceptable and others are not. However, they haven't developed enough to determine which behaviors are right and which aren't. Consequently a child under one year of age cannot misbehave.
This is not to say that babies cannot try a parent's patience, but at this young age it is the parent that needs to learn how to teach the child by example and with positive reinforcement. No other form of discipline will have a positive effect.
From 18 months to 3 years of age the child has begun to understand that they are capable of getting the parent's attention via certain behaviors. They begin to understand that some behaviors have negative consequences and others have positive consequences. The more positive experiences a child has the more they will engage in behaviors that have positive consequences. A child who is craving attention will often resort to behaviors with negative consequences. A child's need for parental interaction is greater than their fear of punishment.
That's not to say that even a well loved child won't act out. They will. Between the age of 15 months and 3 years the child wants to understand what the rules are. Rules make them feel safe and secure. So they will continually choose to engage in behaviors that they have previously been scolded for. They do it to reinforce the rule in their mind, not to upset the parent or to assert dominance in the home. They do it to see if the parent really meant it when they introduced a new rule. Little children need the rules to be enforced over and over again in order to trust that it is not negotiable.
Some forms of discipline are effective with children this young and others are very ineffective. The following is a list of discipline styles both effective and ineffective for children age 18 months to 3 years.
Effective:
Positive Reinforcement
Redirecting
Verbal Instruction/Explanation
Time-outs (no longer than one minute of time-out per year of life)
Ineffective:
Establishment of Rules
Grounding
Withholding Privileges
----------------
Now playing: KXNT
via FoxyTunes
----------------
Now playing: KSL Radio 1160 AM
via FoxyTunes
Labels: discipline, infants, parenting, punishment, toddlers