Punishment Doesn't Work: Here's What Does



Punishment Doesn't Work

Punishment doesn't work.  It never did.  It might stop a behavior briefly, in the moment, which has hoodwinked us into believing that it is the way to go when it comes to challenging behaviors.  If punishment worked, however, we wouldn't have to do it over and over again for the same infractions. Punishment falls short...in a big way.

Think of all the things young children often get in trouble for...hitting, biting, grabbing things from others, meltdowns, etc.  All of those situations can be drastically improved and managed when kids have skills to do so.

Child Psych Central

I recently sat down with Beth Onufrak, PhD, of Child Psych Central, to talk about the things we now know are far more effective in dealing with typical childhood behaviors.  You can listen in right HERE.

Brain Science Makes It Better

We've used punishment as the first line of defense for a centuries, but we know better now. Brain science has helped us find much better (and quicker) ways to change behavior. 

On Dr. Beth's radio show, we covered the importance of calming ourselves down first by keeping our own limbic systems in check. (You can find help to calm yourself down with Everybody Calm Down, our post that links to a dozen stress management ideas for you and your family.)

During the show, we also reviewed some really helpful ways to teach young children how to calm themselves down.

Calming Techniques:

1. Balloon breathing and Bubble Breathing: Teaching Kids to Calm Down

2. Polyspot Stories by Dr. Lynne Kenney: In BLOOM the book,

and also discussed in Segment 3 of this radio show.



 

3. Dragon Brain/ Flower - Candle Breathing from the Office of Head Start

This is just a start! There are so many ways to help "teach" our kids into better behavior! I hope you'll peruse our site, as well as the sites of Dr. Beth Onufrak and Dr. Lynne Kenney, for more creative ideas.