Talks work better than punishment in disciplining children

Punishing children for their mistakes only make them confused and anxious. Rather providing them with information to make good decisions would make children confident, competent and independent, said speakers yesterday.

Methods of how parents could bring up their children through positive disciplines were discussed at a four-day workshop on "Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting (PDEP)" organised by Save the Children, Bangladesh, at the capital's Lakeshore Hotel.

Laila Khondkar, director (Child Protection) of the organisation, said violence in the form of physical punishment and humiliation of children is taking place everywhere -- at homes, schools and public places -- in the world.

In many cases, parents and teachers do not really want to hit children and also feel bad after doing so. Later, they look for alternative ways of disciplining children, she added.

Save the Children, Bangladesh, through its Child Protection programme aims to train parents on positive parenting and thus end physical punishment and humiliation of children which leads to serious violation of child rights. Advocating for laws against corporal punishment in all spheres of life is also needed to ensure child rights, said Laila, adding that there are 46 countries which have banned corporal punishment.

The programme was developed by Dr Joan E Durrant of the University of Manitoba, Canada, in partnership with Save the Children in 1997, said Prof Christine Ateah, faculty of nursing, the University of Manitoba, one of the master trainers of the programme.

Prof Christine mentioned how the media in Canada played a role in shaming parents who punished their children in public and thus helped change social attitude towards negative punishment of children.

About 17 participants from different government departments and NGOs participated in the training on the first day.