Time-Out: Best Strategy or Easiest? Responding to Challenging Behaviors in the Classroom

Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/time-out-best-strategy-or-easiest-responding-to-challenging-behaviors-in-the-classroom/5022153/

The Problems with Time-Out

Although time-out has been a common approach to discipline for many years, there is growing concern about its negative impact, as well as its general lack of effectiveness. For one thing, the child who is frequently in time-out is likely the child who needs more physical activity, not less. While time-out practices remove the child from the setting and activity, time-out itself does little to relate the punishment (isolation) with the undesirable behavior. Time-out does not help children know what to do or learn how to monitor their own behavior.

Time-outs do not teach emotional control. Much mis­behavior results from intense emotions that children have not learned how to properly handle. Time-out sends a ­message that out-of-control feelings are unacceptable, ­rather than instructing children on how to manage those emotions the next time they occur.
Time-outs keep one from looking for better solutions. Time-out often becomes an automatic response used for most disciplinary issues without thought to the possible causes of the behavior or a review of better options. For example, a child having difficulty entering a play group or asking to share a toy learns little about what he can do when simply restricted to time-out. A ...