Recent research tells us that children are “hard-wired” from birth to connect with others, and that children who feel a sense of connection to their community, family, and school are less likely to misbehave. To be successful, contributing members of their community, children must learn necessary social and life skills. Positive Discipline is based on the understanding that discipline must be taught and that discipline teaches.
Five Criteria for Effective Discipline
Effective discipline…
- Helps children feel a sense of connection.
- Is mutually respectful and encouraging.
- Is effective long term. Positive Discipline considers what the child is thinking, feeling, learning, and deciding about the world and future behavior.
- Teaches important social and life skills: respect, concern for others, problem solving, and cooperation as well as the skills to contribute to the home, school or larger community.
- Invites children to discover how capable they are.
Key Concepts
The Positive Discipline Parenting and Classroom Management models are aimed at developing mutually respectful relationships. Positive Discipline teaches adults to employ kindness and firmness at the same time, and is neither punitive nor permissive. The tools and concepts of Positive Discipline include:
- Mutual respect. Adults model firmness by respecting themselves and the needs of the situation, and kindness by respecting the needs of the child.
- Identifying the reason behind the behavior. Effective discipline recognizes the reasons children do what they do, and tries to influence their thinking rather than attempting to change only behavior.
- Effective communication and problem solving skills.
- Discipline that teaches, rather than being permissive or punitive.
- Focusing on solutions instead of punishment.
- Encouragement. Encouragement notices effort and improvement, not just success, and builds long-term self-esteem and empowerment.
Reprinted with permission from PositiveDiscipline.com. Download the full article at http://positivediscipline.com/files/What-is-Positive-Discipline.pdf
