Punishment for children – Is it judicious or ridiculous?

Many parents come for help reporting that…‘Mine is a problem child’, ‘can’t manage the tantrums’, ‘disobedient’, ‘too demanding’, ‘disrespectful’ ‘can’t control him/her’, and a lot of other problems.

So what is the role of punishment in bringing up a child?

Punishment should be used sparingly, and as a last resort on children. It should not become a way of taking revenge, insulting or humiliating the child. It should be administered with the aim of helping the child develop an internal control over self for the bad habits.

Technically it can be defined as presenting an aversive stimulus contingent on the target behaviour for the purpose of decreasing the target behaviour.

The first strategy should always involve “positive strategies” such as

• Rewarding for good behaviour (just praising verbally is usually more than sufficient, more elaborate schemes may include gifts, picnic/party or whatever suits your scene).

• Not meeting the demands of the 'bad behaviour' in the initiation only (so as to avoid setting up of an unhealthy pattern; an unrewarding act is likely to get extinguished on its own).

• Withdrawing some privileges (e.g. I will not play with you today) as you did this bad behaviour.

Explain to the child what wrong he/she has done, and that it is undesirable, and that you are reacting to it, and that you would not do it if the ‘bad behaviour’ was not there. You should be sure of what you are doing, and be consistent with it.

Excessive use of punishment only decreases its efficacy, and in the long run causes strained relations between parent and child, and if you are very unlucky, the child learns to deceive you by lying and hiding mistakes for the fear of punishment. Beating up the child is usually undesirable; it is mostly the result of parent anger rather than purpose of helping the child… and the child can also learn from Your aggressive behaviour. Punishment may be called the lowest form of education.

Spend time with your child, it will help avoid development of problem behaviours, and you will know what causes bad behaviour when it is there.

The Paa Problem... PROGERIA

Auro is suffering from 'Progeria'.

The word Progeria is derived from the Greek progeros meaning 'prematurely old'. The Greek word pro means 'before', while the word geras means 'old age'. It is an extremely rare, fatal genetic condition.Progeria affects children and gives them an appearance of accelerated aging.

Progeria Factfile

• About 100 cases (only!) have been formally recorded in medical history till date.
• There is a 1 in 8 million chance of having it!
• Children with Progeria are born looking healthy.
• Features of aging that should start in 60s, start to appear as the child ages past infancy.
• Growth failure, Loss of body fat, Loss of hair, and a distinctive facial appearance (small face and jaw, pinched nose) are all characteristic of progeria.
• They will have small, fragile bodies, like those of elderly people.
• Later, the condition causes wrinkled skin, atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular problems.
• Progeria patients generally die in early teens.
• Most die from cardiovascular complications.
• Patients with Progeria have a mutation on the gene that encodes a protein “Lamin A” whose fuction is to hold the nucleus of the cell together.
• The defective Lamin A protein makes the nucleus unstable, which leads to the process of premature aging.
• This is a rare gene change which happens purely by chance, and not inherited.
• For treatment few anti cancer drugs (eg Lonafarnib- a type of Farnesyltransferase inhibitor) are being tried but with minimal success.
• Mainstay of management is symptomatic and supportive medical care for complications; supportive psychotherapy for patient as well as care givers.
• Any research into finding a cure for Progeria would probably have results which would benefit adults with diseases linked to aging.

Reference

Scaffidi P, Gordon L, Misteli T (2005) The Cell Nucleus and Aging: Tantalizing Clues and Hopeful Promises. PLoS Biol 3(11): e395. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030395