disciplining a child :: essays research papers

Disciplining A Child Relationships between children and parents are unique and intense. Families are often the happiest when parents and children have the skills to relate and communicate with each other in a positive manner, when parents feel competent in helping their children behave appropriately, and when children can express their emotions and behave appropriately. But behavioral problems among children are very common, and such problems might occur in daily life in the home and in the school, with peers or with other adults. My eight-year-old son’s performance at school recently started to decline. At the beginning of the school year, he was an A student with no problems in reading and writing. After a few months, he becomes a C student. First, I thought that he could not understand a particular topic or exercise, but after meeting with his teacher, I found out that he did not pay enough attention in the class. I and his father discussed the problem with our son. Also, I explained to him why his education is important for his future. He agreed with me and promised to change his behavior in the classroom. Despite that, the low grades continued. It was then I decided to use operant conditioning as a type of learning in order to bring out an entirely new response, with a non-physical punishment (the negative secondary reinforcer)such as time out and loss of privileges (TV watching and video games playing). I prefer to avoid the use of physical punishment with my child. Physical punishment usually happens when a parent is angry and this does not create a positive learning experience for a child. Physical punishment models and teaches hitting and physical aggression, often making a child want to avoid the parent and can have a negative effect on a child’s self-esteem. The non-physical punishment worked for a short time: however, very soon I discovered that my son started to hide his low-graded papers from me. I discussed the situation with him and told him that he chose an incorrect way to avoid punishment. I decided to try another kind of reinforcer, positive one, such as a reward. My son was told that if he would get an A in the next two reading and writing tests he would go to play to his favorite place â€Å"Chuck E. Cheese’s†. He was very excited about that and started to respond: to spend more time reading