PUNISHMENTS FOR CHILDREN: TYPES AND 10 WAYS THAT WORK - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The punishment for children are often needed to correct behaviors and prevent recurrence. The important thing is to know how to punish and also how to reward when they behave appropriately.

Punishment can be a controversial issue, especially when it is applied to children, and it is normal that it is not something pleasant either for them or for the adults who punish.

The objective is to educate our little ones, but is it necessary to apply a punishment for them? When is it necessary to carry it out? It may be true that you have to have a little left hand when we talk about education, but you have to follow some guidelines.

What is punishment and types

In psychology and related sciences, punishment is a type of instrumental conditioning of an aversive nature that is applied when the objective is to make a certain behavior of an individual (in this case, a child) be eliminated or reduced.

There are two types of punishment depending on the contingency we use: on the one hand, positive punishment; on the other, the negative.

Positive punishment

We speak of positive punishment when we apply an unpleasant or aversive stimulus every time the child performs a behavior that we want to eliminate.

Negative punishment

As for negative punishment, we withdraw a stimulus that is pleasant for the child every time he carries out a behavior that we want to eliminate. Within this, we find two variants: the time out and the response cost.

• Time out: consists of withdrawing an appetitive stimulus (normally, an action, such as playing with the console) for a certain time in which we deprive the child of the opportunity to enjoy what is pleasant to him. Later we will see some in-depth examples of this technique.
• Response cost: consists of the loss by the child of a reinforcer that he previously acquired.

10 forms of punishment for children

1- "Rest" period

If the child has been disrespectful to us, has gotten angry or is yelling at us, the fact that we yell at him too will only make things worse.

The appropriate thing in this case would be to send him to his room to create a "rest" period for things to cool down, and then move on to justify what he has done wrong.

2- Light corporal punishment

If we think of acting impulsively (that is, using force or violence with the child), it is best to calm down (even if it is difficult) and, if necessary, withdraw ourselves and leave the child alone for a while. Using force with a child only makes us scared.

In case we choose to use corporal punishment, it must be mild and it must be used in moderation for the reason that we have just mentioned: the child can get scared of us and, in addition, we will be giving him / her to understand that it is legal to use the strength when someone does something wrong.

Reserve corporal punishment for the most serious offenses that cannot be repeated or for actions that have very strong or even dangerous consequences (for example, we see that a child is putting his fingers in the socket)

3- Teach him the consequences of his actions

Let's imagine that our son or daughter has to turn in a work for school the next day. She had two weeks to do it, but even so she has waited for the last day and there is no time to do it. You know that he is going to ask you for help; however, and even if we are a little sad, we do not have to give in.

That is, do not rescue them when they have acted for their own interests and looking for the immediate reinforcer and not for the benefit of their future. Do not always be on his side, in the future he himself will have to remove the chestnuts from the fire.

He himself has to learn to feel that his actions have consequences (often shameful, like the teacher is going to scold him) and to know how to manage his time or keep a small agenda.

4- Response cost

If the child has done something wrong and we know that he has a favorite object (for example, a stuffed animal when it is small), let's move on to remove it for a certain time.

We are going to teach them again that their actions have consequences that in many cases will not be pleasant for them. This technique is called response cost, and it involves removing a material reinforcer from the person.

5- Punishment without leaving

Now let's move on to the classic "punished without leaving." It can be a bit difficult for us to punish him without going to the movies or going out with his friends because he did something wrong.

However, we cannot give in and we have to do so for a reasonable time (we are not going to deprive him of social life for a month either). Remember that punishment must always be done with head.

6- Assign him tasks that he does not like

The following advice is not directly a punishment, but it can help us discipline the little one. Daily tasks like brushing their teeth are not usually pleasant for children.

Therefore, when we tell the child that "it is time to brush his teeth" and he scoffs, we can take his favorite toy and say something like "the bear will wash them with you too!"

In this way, and although it is not a punishment as such, we can teach him a more enjoyable way to do the activities that he does not like with a reinforcer such as a stuffed animal.

7- Take away reinforcing activities

Let's apply time to punishment now. If our little one has done something wrong, let's move on to taking away a reinforcing activity for him (remember that normally eliminating pleasant activities is more effective than removing material things when it comes to punishment).

If we know that our son or daughter goes out of his way for his console or video games, let's go on to punish him without playing for as long as we consider necessary and, instead of carrying out this activity, send him to his room.

Let's not forget that the time we have our child without accessing such activity must be proportional to the age of the child and the severity of their actions. We can take some reference; for example, 15 minutes of punishment for every year the child is.

8- Repair the damage

Let's use restoration. Let us suppose that our child has painted the wall of the living room with crayons, and suppose that the "crime" was even more serious because the wall was freshly painted.

In this case, the punishment for the child will be to repair the damage. That is, you will have to clean up what you have done and it will not come out until you are done.

In this way, he will learn that the responsibility cannot always fall on others and that you, as a mother or father, are not always going to take responsibility for what he does in a negative way.

9- Teach your child to apologize

In addition to punishing him, we have to establish the rule that, after being punished, he has to sincerely apologize for what he has done.

Asking for forgiveness is not usually a pleasant process for a child. Therefore, in addition to going through the aversive experience as punishment, we will be teaching him that in adult life there will be numerous times when he will screw up and have to apologize.

10- Prevention is better than cure

We must keep in mind the famous saying. Get ahead of your child's behavior, you are the one who knows him best. Anticipate it and avoid an unpleasant situation as much as possible.

As parents, we have to learn to punish, but in many cases the most effective thing may be to withdraw attention or be laconic with children. Many behaviors disappear if nothing emanates from them. For example, if a child becomes capricious, we can try withdrawing attention in order to extinguish her behavior.

Guidelines for applying punishment

The punishment that we are going to apply, however, cannot be applied "in a vacuum" and has to follow some guidelines to guarantee its effectiveness, both immediately and in the long term.

Although controversial, punishment well used can be beneficial for the child, especially if we want to teach him that his actions have repercussions that are not always pleasant and if we want to instill in them a certain control of frustration and tolerance to it.

• It must never be humiliating, disproportionate or aggressive and it must always have educational purposes that serve in the long term as life learning for the child.
• Let's see what are the general indications to take advantage of the punishment technique:
• Punishments cannot be excessive and must be in direct proportion to the behavior (never without exceeding limits). That is, they will have a moderate intensity (neither very strong nor very light)
• Punishments must be proportional to the age of the child and the seriousness of the act that we are going to punish.
• They must be contingent on the behavior we want to eliminate and contiguous in time; that is, we have to punish the child right after he carries out the behavior and in a logical way.
• It is more effective if we base the punishments on activities that are of their interest (playing the console, for example) instead of on material things (toys).
• They have to be understandable by the children in order for them to reflect on their behavior and not repeat it again. The aim must at all times be to reflect and promote learning.
• Punishments must always be carried out. That is, if we say that we are going to punish the child, we cannot compromise with it.
• A punishment cannot give way to a reward. For example, if we send the child to her room because she has done something wrong but there she has a computer or toys, it will have been useless to isolate her.

Conclusions

It is necessary to remember that the most effective way to maintain a trans-situational and temporary behavior is through positive reinforcement. A simple compliment when we are proud of our children can be very beneficial for them, especially in such crucial stages as childhood and early adolescence.

Reinforcing positive behavior is perfectly compatible with extinguishing or eliminating that which we dislike. For example, if the child whines for a while and then begins to play quietly with her stuffed animals, we can try ignoring the crying and playing with her when the whining stops.

Of course, the effectiveness of a punishment is governed by individual differences; that is, a certain punishment will be more effective for each child.