What is the best method of disciplining children? It is a long debatable argument that has been going on for centuries. Some believed out right punishment such as corporate punishment worked best while others believed in taking less intrusive methods. What does modern psychology have to offer in favor of these two concepts?
     Before deciding to discipline your children, you always must stop to review your decision. Is this a childish act or a deliberate attempt to break the rules ? There could be other reasons which lead to children "misbehaving" according to our terms. Some mental disorders like ADHD makes children seem like, instructions are falling on deaf ears. If you have to discipline your child for the same reason continuously, it probably needs a thorough evaluation as to why the child is behaving in that manner.           One of the popular methods of punishment is spanking. But modern psychological research has shown that spanking is associated with academic dysfunction, physical and mental health problems and has shown a connection with developing stress which could lead to cancer, heart disease and chronic respiratory problems in adult life. Spanking discourages behavior only for a temporal time, but the behavior will return eventually, and you will have to use even harder methods to correct the behaviors. Spanking or any other type of punishment has side effects like instilling aggression, deteriorating relationships and emotional reactions. 


     There are however many other methods that you can use to discipline a child. The first and foremost would be model the expected behavior yourself. Children can't be asked to show certain values without the parents demonstrating them. Your behavior as a parent is the social model that he/she is learning behavior from. Many modern theories suggest that children observe and imitate behavior that is available to them from the environment. 
     You can use a short time out or withdrawal of a specific privilege to discourage behavior. Unlike in spanking, you will not exhibit strong emotions but rather maintain a casual mood throughout the process. The child should be first told the specific rules and reminded of them often enough that they are familiar. They should also be reminded of the consequences that will arise from not following rules. Then the corrective method of a suitable time out should be taken. After the time out, affection should follow and reasoning to make them understand the consequence was due to them breaking the specified rule. There is a constructive nature in such a discipline method and the child learns of cause and consequences which educate him to not to repeat the undesired pattern of behavior.
     Any child of all ages loves rewards. We should not only focus on disciplining children when they do wrong but appreciating behavior when they do good as it will encourage them to repeat such positive behavior. A reward system should be age appropriated. Smaller children may be encouraged with a simple star but an older child with an outing to the park. The behavior that is being rewarded should be clearly communicated to the child and the specific reward must be given at the promised time.
     Next time your child does something wrong, please stop and consider the decision to punish and look for options to eliminate such behaviors in a positive rewarding way.