8 Effective Ways to Discipline Children

Disciplining your child is one of the most important things a parent can do to ensure their child has a successful future. While showing love and kindness should always be the priority, children who are not disciplined often grow up to be adults who struggle with behavioural problems, low self-esteem, and addiction. That’s why it’s so important for parents to be proactive when dealing with the different behavioural stages of their children, helping them learn right from wrong.

In this blog post, we will discuss 10 effective ways to discipline children. We will explain each method, how it works, and how to implement it into your behavioural management plan! We hope that this information will help parents create better futures for their children!

Show and Tell

Show and tell is one of the most effective behaviour management strategies to include in your parenting plan, as it helps children learn the difference between right and wrong.

Show and tell involves modelling correct behaviour for your child, helping them understand how they should act when confronted with certain situations. To do this, you should take them by the hand and walk through what would be a correct reaction step-by-step until your child understands it!

Ultimately, the child will learn that this behaviour works better than what they do and why. This allows them to follow through with correct actions on their own when they encounter similar situations in the future.

Establish Expectations and Boundaries

One of the best ways to prevent bad behaviour is to establish expectations and boundaries for your child from an early age. This means letting them know what is expected of them in different situations and setting limits on their actions. For example, you could tell your child not to leave the house without asking or that they can’t go over to their friend’s house unless someone accompanies them there.

Here is a list of some common expectations and boundaries:

• I expect my child not to lie about anything!
• I expect my child not to play video games after school time!
• I expect my child not to run around in public places!

You can effectively implement this strategy by explicitly stating these expectations and boundaries to your child, as well as writing them down in a behaviour contract.

Silence

Silence is a child discipline method that involves not responding to your child’s requests for attention. Parents can implement this strategy by ignoring their children when they misbehave or exhibit bad behaviour. This works best if you have set clear expectations and boundaries with them beforehand, so they know what behaviours will lead to being ignored by parents.

This child discipline technique aims to make the child feel ignored and unimportant until they eventually stop exhibiting the bad behaviour. However, it’s important to note that this method can be difficult to maintain over a long period. For effective implementation at home, we recommend trying this child discipline technique for short periods (e.g., 15 minutes) before moving on to other child behaviour management strategies.

Provide Ultimatums

Ultimatums are similar to silence. The child discipline technique involves not responding to your child’s requests for attention by saying, “If you don’t stop what you’re doing right now, then [consequence].” This child discipline method works best when used with other techniques like establishing expectations and boundaries or setting consequences for misbehaving.

You can expect your child to stop their bad behaviour when they know there is a definite consequence for continuing it.

Time Out

Time out is a child behaviour management strategy that involves separating your child from the situation in which they are misbehaving. The child discipline technique can be effective at home by removing them from their bedroom, playroom, etc., and away from other children who might also be misbehaving.

When implementing time out, it’s important to make sure your child is calm and quiet before releasing them back into the situation. We recommend setting a timer for one or two minutes per year of age (e.g., a five-year-old would spend five minutes in time out).

Confiscation

Sometimes child discipline involves taking away your child’s favourite things. This child behaviour management strategy can be effective if you use it consistently and follow through with consequences, such as saying, “if you don’t clean up your toys right now, then they will be taken away for a week.”

It is important to note that child behaviour management strategies like confiscation are not always appropriate for younger children. For example, this child discipline technique might work better in school or on an outing with friends rather than at home, where there would be more opportunity to misbehave again once their things were returned.

Grounding

Grounding is a child discipline method that involves restricting your child’s movements. Parents can use this child’s behaviour management strategy by telling their children that they cannot leave the house or go out with friends.

Grounding is most effective when used in conjunction with other child discipline techniques, such as establishing expectations and boundaries, providing ultimatums, or setting consequences for misbehaviour.

When grounding your child, it’s important to be clear about why they are being restricted and what they need to do to earn their freedom back. We recommend that grounding be used for short periods of time (e.g., one day) to avoid it becoming ineffective.

Revoking Privileges

Another child behaviour management strategy that is often overlooked is revoking privileges. This child discipline technique involves taking away something your child enjoys doing, such as watching TV or playing video games, until they have learned to behave appropriately again.

It is important to note that child discipline techniques like revoking privileges should only be used as a last resort after other methods have failed. Try to be calm and not yell when using this child behaviour management strategy, so your child doesn’t feel like you’re punishing them for something they didn’t do wrong.

The child behaviour management strategies we have discussed in this article are just some of the many ways parents can effectively discipline their children. There is no one right way to raise kids; however, several child discipline techniques work better than others (e.g., time out and giving consequences).

Parents should use a combination of these child behaviour management strategies to create a plan that works best for their families.