When it comes to motherhood, it would be much easier if children all came with handbooks. Guides that mom could use to help raise her child. However, life rarely works like that and that is why moms can rely on the words of experts who have studied child development and found what can work best, and what can often fail. Raising children has a lot of joys in it, there are the snuggles, the laughter and the memories, but a lot of parenting is difficult, and it requires difficult choices to be made.
When it comes to handling a child’s behavior, there are many different ways a parent can go about disciplining or modifying negative actions. It can be hard to find the method that will work right for your child, and mom can scour the internet for all the different tricks and tips on how to rectify negative behavior. Two of the biggest trends involve positive reinforcements and punishments, and while the two are methods of reducing unwanted behavior, they are very different.
What Is Positive Reinforcement?
Before we can understand which method works best for changing behavior, we must first have an understanding of what each method is. According to Very Well Mind, positive reinforcement is a concept that involves strengthening positive behaviors. It is reinforcing the behaviors we want to see our children doing, and rewarding them when they do them. It involves including something following a behavior that can help to ensure that the behavior continues. This is a concept seen in potty training a lot, when a child goes on the potty, they are given a small treat. The promise of a small treat can further make sure that they continue to go to the bathroom on the toilet.
What Is Punishment?
Punishment is very different, and it is often seen in a negative light. According to Very Well Family, punishment is often about the control of a child. Punishment often involves a penalty for a child’s behavior and it is often stemmed from a parent’s frustration about the child’s behavior. An example of punishment would be if your child misbehaves, parents can send them to their room, make them do more chores or take away their phones or screen time. It works in the opposite way as positive reinforcement, as you are taking away for negative behavior instead of giving for positive behavior.
Why Is Positive Reinforcement Better?
Positive reinforcement will almost always work better than punishment, and it is more likely to give mom the outcome that she wants. According to Herald Net, positive reinforcements will almost always be more effective at changing a child’s behavior. When mom rewards good behavior and encourages that, it is more powerful than punishment. This is because positive reinforcement evokes a good feeling in both the child and parent.
Punishment does the opposite. It leads to a child feeling like they are “bad” and it can damage their self-esteem, and it can often leave mom feeling guilty that maybe she was a little too harsh on her child. Another reason why punishment is not an effective way of changing behavior is that that bad behavior can become rewarding. If a child is acting out because they crave attention, even if the attention they get is negative, they will continue acting that way to get the desired outcome. Mom has to change the way attention is given, and positive reinforcement will always work better.
Sources: Very Well Mind, Very Well Family, Herald Net