Calling ”timeout” is a popular and effective disciplinary tactic.
Timeout involves immediately removing misbehaving children from the center of activity and placing them in a boring spot, for example, on a chair facing a blank wall in a hallway.
The child must stay there quietly for several minutes, usually one minute for each year of age. Many parents use a kitchen timer.
Parents who properly use the timeout as their primary disciplinary tool for children between the ages of about 2 and 8 report that it helps enormously to reduce bad behavior without raising parental anger, impairing the child`s self-esteem or prompting the child to strike back.
It provides a cooling-off period for the parent and the child and it allows the child to focus on the behavior that led to a timeout instead of on the punishment.
Timeout should be used as matter-of-factly as possible after no more than one warning, like ”Stop throwing your food or you will have to go in timeout.”
For details on its application in various circumstances, see ”The Time-Out Solution: A Parent`s Guide for Handling Everyday Behavior Problems” by Lynn Clark (Contemporary Books, $10.95) and ”Time-Out for Toddlers” by Dr. James W. Varni and Donna G. Corwin (Berkley Books, $6.95).
