Jack, Thank you for always reminding us about brain science, which tells us that when a person is stressed they can't always access their executive functioning skills, which are responsible for reasoning and impulse control. You probably already know the self-regulation work of Stuart Shanker. I like his work because it combines brain science, child development, and compassion. His work is used in schools across Canada. There's more information at
www.self-reg.ca. He has published a book for parents:
Self-Reg: How to Help Your Child (and You) Break the Stress Cycle. When I talk with teachers about a child with challenging behaviors I encourage them to identify possible stressors and what we can do to alleviate them, even before we look at specific behaviors. "See a child differently; see a different child."
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Aren Stone
Child Development Specialist
The Early Years Project
Cambridge, MA
she/her
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-21-2019 11:01 AM
From: Jack Wright
Subject: The stress issue.
Current information from the scientific research of the brain looks important to me. For one thing, I'm hoping that we can discuss discipline again. It looks like anything that causes unrelieved stress is damaging to a child. Stress can develop parts of the brain that lead to ineffective fear responses and doesn't develop the parts of the brain that think carefully about responses. It's clear that sometimes a caregiver needs to say, No, to a child. Sometimes it's even with a raised voice. This act raises attention to a behavior, but it also causes stress and the child then needs to be calmed in order to think about the consequences of her behavior.
This approach to discipline is very different from spanking. There is no anger, no blame. It doesn't cause fight or flight behaviors. It doesn't make the child feel less smart or less worthwhile. A "no" does need to lead to a discussion so that what is learned by the child isn't just acceptance of authority. Well-considered discipline can support the thinking that develops attention to consequences and leads to making effective decisions about behaviors.
Survey's find that some 80% of parents still believe in corporal punishment. That suggests to me that early childhood caregivers need to discuss discipline in order to adjust their own beliefs as well as those of the parents they work with. Like all science there may be errors in conclusions that will come out later, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't consider new evidence of harm to children. Let's talk about discipline.
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Jack Wright
Child Development Consultant
Success With Children
St Ignatius MT
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