Afifi - positive parenting approaches

We know that if we use positive parenting approaches or parenting approaches that don’t include physical discipline, they’re more successful in terms of guiding children and changing any unwanted behavior. And they don’t come with the negative risks that the physical discipline come with.  

So, what that means is we need to help parents understand the harms related to physical discipline, but we also need to if we’re taking away a strategy, we also have to replace it with a positive strategy. So, I think it’s really important for parents to learn about positive parenting approaches and how they may be different for different children across different ages or developmental levels.  

And in addition to that, I think what’s really important is for parents to understand child development. I think that’s a really important thing that we can do for parents is to teach them normal, healthy child development. And if they can understand what is typical healthy child behavior, then they’re less likely to think of the behavior as defiant or naughty or, quote unquote, bad behavior. So, if it’s an infant who’s crying, they may be able to understand that that infant is communicating to them whether they’re hungry or they need their diaper changed or there’s some sort of discomfort there rather than “this is upsetting to me, I don’t want to hear the crying”. And if it’s an older child, a toddler or a preschool child, who’s having the typical tantrum, understanding that, again, that child is frustrated or is needing to communicate and they’re not trying to upset the parent or they’re not trying to be defiant. 

So, I think if we can understand the behaviors from a child development perspective and also equip parents with positive parenting approaches, then those two things together, I think, can really decrease the risk of harms related to children.