Discipline vs. Punishment for Children

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Pam on behalf of Expert Village and now we're going to talk about understanding behaviors in children. Now there's a big difference between discipline and punishment. Discipline is what you want to focus on, you want to emphasize the positive, which is discipline, even though it is towards a negative behavior. You don't want to focus on punishment, that focuses on the negative. Discipline emphasizes what the child should do, where as punishment emphasizes what the child should not do. So, for instance if a kid bites another child, you don't want to go up and go no we don't bite. You want to go up and say something a little bit more positive like our teeth are for chewing. That's something, you want to give them something positive that they can do with their teeth. Something positive they can do with their hands if they're hitting. Discipline is an ongoing process it's something that you can repeat. Punishment is usually a one-time occurence to an incident that happens. Discipline sets an example to follow, whereas, punishment again focuses on the negative. Now when you're doing this, you want to be aware of every aspect of your body. You wanna think about your voice, you wanna talk to a child the same way that you talk to other people, they're gonna imitate you. Believe it or not, if you come at a child very negatively and aggressively, they're gonna match that just like an adult can do. Whereas, if you're calm, generally they will stay calm. You want to control your volume, the best thing to do is to get down on their level so that you're close enough that you don't have to worry about raising your voice. You wan't to think about your words, the fewer you use the better. The simpler the statement, the easier it is for them to understand. You wanna speak them once, make sure they're clear and help focus on the real issues that are involved. Convey what is expected in a positive way. And then also you want to think about your body. Be aware of the fact that you are much larger than the child that in and of itself is very intimidating. Be aware of your height and your position, like I said you want to get down on their level. It is hard to communicate warmth and caring and concern when you're two to three feet above them standing and looking down at them. You wan't to make full use of your senses; if you touch them, do it softly and eye contact is essential."