2. Discipline vs. Punishment
• Discipline = to teach
– Healthy/safe behavior
– Appropriate behavior
– Respectful behavior
• Punishment = suffering, pain, or loss
that serves as retribution (per
Merriam-Webster dictionary)
3. Why we discipline?
• To help children be more successful
(socially and behaviorally) right now
• To help children grow into successful
adults
• To help parents and teachers enjoy
children more
4. Being Great Teachers
(Disciplinarians)
• Great teachers… (are patient,
humorous, help you feel good about
yourself, are honest, have reasonable
expectations, forgive, have fun, etc.)
• Great teachers DO NOT call you bad
names, hit you, make fun of you
5. The Myths of Discipline
• Positive discipline means never saying “no”
or correcting a child
• Positive discipline leads to bratty behavior
• TRUTH: positive discipline uses sound
behavioral principles to change children’s
behavior
• Physical discipline is necessary to teach
appropriate behavior
• TRUTH: multiple studies show physical
discipline is associated with increases in
problem behavior
• See American Psychological Association article at
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/04/spanking.aspx
7. Positive Reinforcement
• Something rewarding/reinforcing happens/is
given - and increases the behavior that came
right before
– Example – praising a child who shares a toy at class
– and the child becomes more likely to share over
time
• = MOST powerful way to change behavior
• Reward/reinforcer has to be positive to the
child
• NOTE: negative attention can be rewarding/
reinforcing especially as opposed to being
ignored
8. Extinction
• Something rewarding/reinforcing is removed –
and decreases the behavior that came right
before
– Example: child is sent to time out for hitting, and
becomes less likely to hit over time
• For young children, often the best
reward/reinforcer to remove is your
attention (ignoring, time out)
• For older children, best reward/reinforcer to
remove is the privilege they like best (cell
phone, media time, time with friends, etc.)
9. Punishment
• suffering, pain, or loss that serves as
retribution
– Example: yelling at a child for throwing food or
spanking a child for getting out of their bed
during naptime
• = LEAST effective strategy to change
behavior
• Often leads to sneaky behavior, and
resentment towards the parent/teacher
10. Don’t Water the Weeds
• We often do the reverse of what we
should do
– We ignore the behavior we like – “starving our
little plant” (when we should be
rewarding/reinforcing)
– And give lots of negative attention to the
behavior we don’t like – “watering the weeds”
(when we should be ignoring or giving time-out
or removing a privilege)
