“Using repressive education is not beneficial for child development”

IThe “work” of parenting is a complex mission in constant construction. According to New York University’s Martin Hoffman, a parent of a child between the ages of 2 and 10 is faced with at least 15,000 situations each year in which he tries to get his child to obey. Parents very often ask themselves, and rightly so, the question of knowing which educational practices will be most beneficial for the child’s development, to reduce difficulties in regulating behavior and to have peaceful family relationships.

Educational methods based mainly on repressive strategies, including frequent punishment, as we know them today, are ineffective, even counterproductive, because in addition to increasing the child’s anxiety and worsening his behavior problems, they do not teach him good behavior. (For example, show the child how to ask for an object rather than punishing him for taking it from his hand.) The use of punishment is also associated with the underdevelopment of a child’s moral reasoning, which itself promotes altruistic behavior, as indicated by a synthesis of research by Martin Pinkwart and Anton Fischer. [de l’université Philipps de Marbourg, en Allemagne].

These results call into question the relevance of spreading methods based on old coercive educational principles. For example, in a book called Go to your room! Provide educational boundaries to your children (InterEditions, 2020), Caroline Goldman recommends punishing young children from the age of 12 months, after explaining the prohibition to them. “Except in his room (or any secluded room) where [le parent] leave her behind the door crying”and “Start over as soon as the child breaks”Recommend a parent to use this “Repressive system”. He shouldn’t “Don’t hesitate to leave a child over 4 in the room for half an hour or more.” And if the child tries to go outside, the parent should extend the isolation: “only.