There is a deadly silence surrounding routine assault and battery of children commonly referred to as "spanking."  Dr. Michael J. Marshall's Why Spanking Doesn't Work: Stopping This Bad Habit and Getting the Upper Hand on Effective Discipline shatters that silence. This book satisfies two essential requirements: 1) It meets the most rigorous standards for scholarship and 2) it is entirely accessible to the lay reader.  Dr. Marshall's new book adroitly exposes the myths and falsehoods that far too many upstanding citizens endorse in order to camouflage their mistreatment of children. He shows the frightening consequences
individually and collectively. Why Spanking Doesn't Work... is particularly welcome at a time when much of the world is embracing, rather than rejecting, violent solutions. I enthusiastically recommend it to health care professionals, educators, the makers of education policy, and especially to parents. 

Positive Discipline without Hurting your Child

"Children always seem to find a way to ‘push our buttons’ at times and really try our patience. It’s easy to feel irritated, sad, angry, annoyed, confused and hurt." This is a good article to read and I recommend it. 1-20-08

Toogood Incident Reveals Spanking Dangers 
By Michael J. Marshall, P.h.D.

“What’s wrong with spanking?” is a common question asked by many. The recent news images of Madelyne Gorman Toogood beating her 4-year-old daughter, caught on a surveillance tape, provide an answer. A key component of most parents’ discipline strategy is punishment. And punishment has traditionally meant hitting and spanking children. 

In reality, most parents simply react to their child in a manner consistent with what they witnessed and experienced at the hands of their parents while growing up. And now, as adults in charge of their own children, they mindlessly discipline as they were disciplined. 

Too often discipline consists of getting angry and punishing the child with a spanking. In other words, to punish means to vent anger at the child. Anger is the primary motivator. This approach is fraught with danger. Unless parents make a conscious effort to change this automatic intergenerational discipline pattern, it will be passed on to their children. 

Some spanking advocates advise that one should never spank when angry. This is a tacit acknowledgment that spanking often is a result of parents’ anger--that it is easy to overreact, hit too hard, and injure a child. The fatal flaw in this advice is that research clearly indicates punishment has no impact on behavior if it is not administered immediately. Therefore, if an angry parent waits until he has cooled off before punishing, the whole purpose of punishment has been defeated. There are other spanking advocates who apparently are willing to ignore the obvious physical dangers associated with overreaction. They advise parents to respond without delay to a child's misbehavior. Upon examination of both options: a) to punish spontaneously, with all its risks and meager temporary benefits or b) to wait until one has cooled down before punishing and accrue even fewer benefits, it should become obvious that neither choice is a good one. It makes far better sense for parents to learn and employ non-spanking methods. They have been proven to work, and are without the high risk of negative side effects. 

Jordan Riak, Director of Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education (PTAVE), points out that discipline must begin with the parent. Parents must first learn to manage their own emotions in a disciplined manner by thinking, “How do I stand back and rationally assess the problem, think of possible solutions, and move to the next step without succumbing to the natural impulse to strike out in anger. Discipline begins with me. I need to act with self-control.” Attempting to guide a child without learning alternatives to those reactions copied blindly from one's own childhood, is destined to fail. 

Raising a child is the most difficult and demanding task any of us will ever undertake. To do so without self-discipline, self-understanding, and knowledge of child development, but by merely relying on old habits and impulses, is like jumping out of an airplane and saying “I’ll figure out how to work the parachute on my way down.” At that point it’s too late to do it
correctly. 

Without the motivation to learn and improve, the pattern of impulse-hitting will be transmitted to the next generation. Riak points out that the burden of discipline should not be borne by the child, but by the parent. How well the parent keeps at bay habitual punitive impulses, and supplants them with thoughtful management, makes all the difference. 

Today many informed parents are making the transition to noncorporal forms of punishment, such as time out. This is a step in the right direction towards better childhood discipline practices. Parents who use time-out will never have to suffer through the agony of taking their child to the emergency room due to an accidental injury resulting from corporal punishment gone awry. It takes more time and effort to discipline creatively than to react punitively, but take the time. It's worth it. 

A new study shows that disciplining children by spanking puts youngsters at risk for becoming aggressive, antisocial, and chronically defiant, the Washington Post reported June 26.

In addition, study author Elizabeth Gershoff, a researcher at Columbia University's National Center for Children in Poverty, found that spanking is linked to delinquency and a failure to learn right from wrong.

Gershoff said there is an increased risk with spanking that the discipline technique might turn into child abuse. "The bottom line is that corporal punishment is associated with numerous risks for children," she said. "I would argue parents should to the best of their ability avoid using corporal punishment and instead use nonphysical and more positive types of discipline that we know are effective."

Gershoff analyzed 88 studies over 62 years to determine the effects of spanking on 11 child behaviors. Apart from immediate compliance, the research showed that spanking had negative effects on other behaviors.

The study is published in the June 24, 2002 weekly issue of the Psychological Bulletin, a publication of the American Psychological Association. 

Compliments of  www.jointogether.org 

A new study has found that children who are spanked and slapped are twice as likely to develop alcohol and other drug abuse problems, the Toronto Star Health reported Oct. 5. 

The study, conducted at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, found that spanking and slapping children is linked to increased rates of anxiety disorders, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, anti-social behavior, and to some extent, depression. 

The results of the study come at a time when the Canadian Foundation for Youth and the Law, a children's rights group, has filed a constitutional challenge in the Superior Court of Justice against Section 43 of the Criminal Code, which allows parents to physically discipline children. 

"My opinion is that Section 43 should be repealed because I believe it sanctions physical discipline of children," said Dr. Harriet MacMillan, lead author of the study. 

The study was based on an estimated 10,000 responses in a supplemental section of the Ontariohealth ministry's 1990 population health survey. 

The study was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The court case is expected to be heard in early December. 

Compliments of  www.jointogether.org 

Inside this cyber pamphlet you will find valuable information which can change the entire course of your child’s life. Please  read it with an open mind. Remember, just as your child has much to learn about life, you too have much to learn so  that you can be the best possible parent that you can be.Please print this out and share it with your family, friends and daycare.

You can also send for free copies from:
We The Children
Blythe and David Daniel
P.O. Box 351874
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Or Call (323) 295-1562
Email or visit  http://www.wethechildren.com