Parenting lesson from Sheriff Taylor...

parentastic

PF Fiend
Jul 22, 2011
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One last reply, and I apologize for the readers who have to endure all these long posts in a row.

tadamsmar said:
"Many of the most popular child-rearing books are full of such nonsense. They repeatedly urge parents to hold, soothe, comfort and talk to a child who bites, hits, screams, throws or breaks things, ignores or refuses parental requests or otherwise behaves in obnoxious, infantile ways. Common sense and a truckload of research argue solidly against this practice. Yet these experts seem to be unaware of the well-established fact that children do what gets noticed, that adult attention usually makes behavior more likely to occur, not less.
1) Children behave in "infantile ways" because... they are children.
They don't try to be obnoxious. They use a developing brain that has not reach maturation yet. And by the way, it is the parent's job to provide the best conditions possible to help the growth of the child's brain and help the child through the stages of his development (which behaviorist happily ignore, since they are only concerned with "making the behavior less obnoxious for the parent")

2) A truckload of research <I>in behavioral science only</I> (outside any work on root cause, intent, emotions, or needs), indeed shows that behaviors that are not ignored (both with positive AND negative attention) tend to be reproduced, while ignoring unwanted behavior tend to suppress the behavior.

The reason this is true is that attention and love are fundamental needs of a child. So even behaviorist actually do use the needs to manipulate the child's behavior. But instead of asking themselves what need triggered the unwanted behavior, they instead withdraw another fundamental need to force the child to change, completely ignoring the harmful side effects of suppressing a symptom when the root cause has not been addressed.

3) A truckload of research <I>in other fields of psychology, </I>including attachment, neuro-science, and cognitivism, argue solidly against love withdrawal techniques and behavioral modification, because <I>whatever the child is doing, he is responding to his natural programming to meet his needs. </I>A child cannot "misbehave". He doesn't even grasp what a good or a bad behavior is. He can only react the best his immature brain can to meet his need. Which is why the parent's job is to meet that need as fast and as best as possible, while not letting the child's immature "wants" drive the relationship - a delicate and nuanced balance to achieve, which some great parental expert like Colorosso, Aldort, Gordon, Neufeld, or Seigal have touched upon in great details, based on the work on hundreds of various discipline of psychology before them.

4) This being said, the author of your citation above is right that when parents are holding, soothing or comforting a child that bites, hits, screams, throws or breaks things, <I>without addressing the root cause of the issue, </I>then they would indeed reinforce the bad behavior.
Attachment is all about responding to a child's needs, holding, soothing and comforting, WHILE MAKING SURE that the underlying issue is addressed - so that there is NO MORE biting, hitting, screams, throwing or breaking things.

5) Attachment parenting is backed by neuroscience, a field of study that, no doubt, you have not heard of since it didn't exist in the 1970s.
I trust a video reference from the director of the Center on the developing child from Harvard University will be satisfactory for you? Pay attention to what he says about children under stress.
 
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singledad

PF Addict
Oct 26, 2009
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tadamsmar said:
Please explain, what 40 years of research are you talking about? Please provide PubMed references so that no one will think you are confusing research with mere opinion.
Fortunately, the regular members on this forum know I'm not in the habit of deliberately talking crap, and that I understand the difference between research and opinion, so I'm not worried ;)

tadamsmar said:
Also, surely you are aware that we all depend on plenty of research findings that are 40 year old or older. There is simply no basis for rejecting reasearch findings simply because they have been around for a while. There is no cut-off point of that sort. None of you are doing yourselves a favor by claiming this.
Nobody is rejecting it because its old. We simply choose to look at the research that built on those findings in the last 40 years. If you make and effort stay up to date in any scientific field, the first thing you will notice is that <U>science isn't static</U>. New studies build on, improve on, and sometimes disprove the findings of older studies. Sometimes they even suggest a whole new way of looking at something.

In a nutshell - We are not rejecting the research findings on behaviorism because it is old. We are rejecting it because newer studies have proved that it is fundamentally flawed. Refer to bssage's post for more detail.

tadamsmar said:
So where is all this new research?
Please accept my apology for going home and spending time with my child before doing your homework for you. I just thought that giving my daughter some love and (positive:p) attention was more important (and more fun) than spending time on an internet forum posting research links for someone who can't be bothered to search for it himself :rolleyes:

Fortunately, that gave parentastic the time to reply instead. I trust you are satisfied with the info he posted?
 

tadamsmar

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Jun 21, 2012
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Parentastic said:
Look dude, I have taken over 900+ hours of formation at the university level in developmental psychology and lifespan to become a family life educator. Are you REALLY expecting me to write down here the result of what I have learned over 2 years?
I have no such credentials. I guess I should take everything you say on authority.

When you tell me that Kazdin's and Webster-Stratton's methods are bad, I guess I should take it on authority that those are bad methods.

When you direct me to Gershoff who approves of Kazdin's Parent Mangement Training and Webster-Stratton's methods, then I guess I should take it on authority that those are good methods.
 
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bssage

Super Moderator
Oct 20, 2008
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First i travel for work. When awh (away from home) i use a tablet or my phone. Typing is pita, so i wait to get home.

Second. No you do not need to take pstc on authority. But simular to. A md or even car mechanic. We all know he has spent a significant amount of time formally studieng these issues. So even though i do not always agree. I do place additionall weight on his opinions. Because they generaly are "informed opinions".

Ps my only credintials are being a daddy