Want to raise your child’s IQ by 5 points right now? Don’t spank them anymore.
So says the results of yet another study looking at the negative effects of spanking …
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Thank you for this post, John. Indeed, why would anyone raise a hand against his or her own children no matter what the reason.
There has been a very active discussion about spanking children in Amazon Discussion Communities. I was personally horrified by the amount of parents who justified doing it.
B. F. Skinner
He told us years ago that negative reenforcement does not work. It makes animals stupider, as his experiments showed. It has unexpected ans wide ranging effects that can not be predicted.
Think about it during our evolution those things which produced negative reenforcement were dangerous things that could kill. So you want a strong reaction to negative reenforcement, and wide ranging so it effects the behavior that needs suppressing.
Also fear and anger suppress intelligence, they bring about reactions not actions.
i think the easiest way for parents who are obsessed about their child’s iq can raise their child’s iq is to farm their children out to other parents who are too smart to be iq obsessed.
also i don’t believe that the kind of parents who have latent violent tendencies that manifest themselves in spanking will be influenced at all by this study.
also kids who are smart enough to manipulate situations so that their parents don’t spank them are probably a little smarter the the first category of kids. while of course parents do have the dominant role in many if not most relationships perhaps this study doesn’t weigh for this.
Child buttock-battering vs. DISCIPLINE:
Child buttock-battering for the purpose of gaining compliance is nothing more than an inherited bad habit.
Its a good idea for people to take a look at what they are doing, and learn how to DISCIPLINE instead of hit.
I think the reason why television shows like “Supernanny” and “Dr. Phil” are so popular is because that is precisely what many (not all) people are trying to do.
There are several reasons why child bottom-slapping isn’t a good idea. Here are some good, quick reads recommended by professionals:
Plain Talk About Spanking
by Jordan Riak,
The Sexual Dangers of Spanking Children
by Tom Johnson,
NO VITAL ORGANS THERE, So They Say
by Lesli Taylor M.D. and Adah Maurer Ph.D.
Most compelling of all reasons to abandon this worst of all bad habits is the fact that buttock-battering can be unintentional sexual abuse for some children. There is an abundance of educational resources, testimony, documentation, etc available on the subject that can easily be found by doing a little research with the recommended reads-visit http://www.nospank.net.
Just a handful of those helping to raise awareness of why child bottom-slapping isn’t a good idea:
American Academy of Pediatrics,
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
Center For Effective Discipline,
PsycHealth Ltd Behavioral Health Professionals,
Churches’ Network For Non-Violence,
Nobel Peace Prize recipient Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
Parenting In Jesus’ Footsteps,
Global Initiative To End All Corporal Punishment of Children,
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In 26 countries, child corporal punishment is prohibited by law (with more in process). In fact, the US was the only UN member that did not ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Honestly all these facts about child buttock slapping and spanking generally are hitting me hard. I was spanked, lashed and tongue-lashed as a child and adolescent. I spank my daughter because she is quite mischievous and stubborn. I love my daughter and know that as a 3 year old she is bound to be difficult and restless. I see spanking her-not in a wicked and unfair way- as okay.
What do you now say about the biblical statement ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’.
I do not accept the position of psychologists as being above the position of God and the holy books on all issues.
There isn’t much spanking in the western world yet the children are more into drugs than African children who are faced with harsher survival challenges.
it is good to teach parents to love their chldren but I do not think it is reight to preach that spanking sholud not take place-even at a mild level.