Time Outs

I use to work at a daycare and for discipline time out was a common technique. I saw the pros and cons using time out throughout my time there. As our book says, the time out must be brief;one minute for each year of the child's age is suggested ( Berger, 2011).We used the same guidelines for giving out time outs. What I realized about this was that the older the child got, the more time outs worked. For our two year old, most of the time they were just trying to figure out how to get out of time out instead of sitting and reflecting on why they were in time out to begin with. The older 5 and 6 year olds would usually learn quickly when it came to time outs. Many would say sorry and plead to never do it again all in hopes that they could go play with their friends again. I would suggested induction for the younger children which is when the parent talks extensively with the child, getting the child to understand why his or her behavior was wrong ( Berger, 2011). This way the younger child would actually think about what he or she did bad instead of just trying to get out of time out.

Citations:

Berger, Kathleen. (2011). The Developing Person Through the Life Span. New York, NY : Worth Publishers.