Discipline a Child - Research Paper Example

The aim of any discipline is to set reasonable and realistic expectations. Disciplining a child often aims at protecting the child from harmful behavior and to impart education. It is a fact that children are sensitive and they require freedom to grow and learn. However, they cannot thrive on unlimited freedom as it will just hamper their growth of intelligence. For a child to grow up to be a responsible, conscious, respectable and dependable adults, he/ she should learn the moral, ethics and social norms that are considered acceptable by the society from their parents.

Children who are brought up without any discipline tend to be selfish, greedy, dishonest and unfit for social interactions. Most of the undisciplined children often become destructive and aggressive adults. Children should be disciplined right from the start. However, the discipline techniques used by the parents or the guardians should be considered carefully as it can have a great impact on the child. Disciplining a child using abusive language, extreme physical violence or embarrassing the child should not be done as these can lead to negative development on the child.

There are several ways for parents to discipline their children. Some of the common ways of disciplining a child are: spanking, yelling, punishing and embarrassing the child. . Punishing them for their wrong deeds is one of the best ways to discipline them. But, punishment should not be harsh or cruel. In any form of disciplining a child, it is important to have complete control and to draw a line between torture and discipline. Spanking children to discipline them is one of the most debated topics in today’s world.

Many people are now equating spanking to corporal punishment. On the other hand, many parents are in favor of spanking their kids to yield desired results on their behavior. There are many researchers who believed that spanking is harmful for the Childs development and many researchers are also in favor of spanking children. According to said Lisa Berlin, who is the lead author and research scientist at the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University, spanking is not an effective technique to discipline a child.

She explained that spanking infants and toddlers, is not the answer to instill the right behavior in a child as they do not understand anything about what is right, wrong or even punishment to really benefit from being spanked by their parents. Lisa Berlin and her colleagues’ research confirmed that children who were spanked from early years (as early as 1 year) are more aggressive and they are less likely to perform well as compared to other children who are not spanked. Lisa Berlin also added that previous research had also concluded that children who are spanked by their parents are more likely to be younger, less educated, depressed and stressed in their adult life.

Discipline is an important and essential component in children developmental process. However, it should be done with extreme care as children lack the knowledge and understanding of the world around them.