Spanking is ineffective and harmful for children, according to a group of pediatricians



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Effective discipline involves practicing empathy and "understanding how to treat your child at different stages of development to learn how to calm down when things get explosive," said Dr. Vincent J. Palusci, pediatrician of child abuse at NYU Children's Hassenfeld Hospital Langone.

HealthyChildren.org, the parenting website of the Academy, offers tips for disciplining younger and older children. Rewarding positive behavior, using wait times and establishing a clear relationship between behavior and consequences can be effective strategies.

"We can not just eliminate spanking," said Dr. Palusci. "We have to give the parents something to replace him."

The number of parents who spank their children is decreasing. A 2013 Harris survey of 2,286 adults surveyed online found that 67% of parents reported spanking their children, and 33% did not. In 1995, however, 80% of parents reported spanking their children, while 19% said no.

Attitudes about spanking are also changing. In the United States, seven in ten adults agree that an "effective spanking is sometimes necessary to discipline a child," according to the 2014 General Social Survey, that spanking has become less popular over time.

In 1970, Fitzhugh Dodson, a clinical psychologist and successful author of parenting books, was quoted in The New York Times, saying that many discipline problems could be solved by using his "pow-wow approach".

"It's my hen, followed by his wow," he explained, showing how he would scoop a child's bottom.

"I know some books say that parents should not be spanked, but I think it's a mistake," he said. "A poor mother has nowhere else to go. She is angry at the kid, she has the eyebrow and she wants to give him a big slap on the butt, but she was told she should not. She should, and it's good for her, because it relaxes her tension. And the child prefers it clearly to long parental harangues.

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