45 - Positive Discipline Ch. 7 - 9

Post date: May 26, 2016 2:35:58 PM

Counselor Notes 45

March 10, 2016

Positive Discipline Chapters 7 - 9

Moving along through Positive Discipline, we are now at the highlights of chapters 7 through 9.

Chapter 7: Using Encouragement Effectively

In the book Dr. Nelson emphasizes the point that “adults don’t realize … that any child which is misbehaving is subconsciously saying ‘I just want to belong, and I have some mistaken ideas about how to accomplish belonging.’” (p. 141)

In helping children learn better ways to belong, Dr. Nelson notes the importance of:

· Timing – parents may need to time the encouragement they give their child to a time when the child can hear it. (i.e. there may need to be a cooling off period.)

· Mutual Respect – this “incorporates attitudes of (a) faith in the abilities of yourself and others (b) interest in the point of view of others as well as your own; and (c) willingness to take responsibility and ownership of your own contribution to the problem.” (p. 143)

· Noticing improvement instead of expecting perfection.

· Redirecting Misbehavior – Find the positive attributes in misbehavior and put that to constructive use.

· Making Amends – give the child ways to make up for the issues their misbehavior created.

· Schedule “Special Time” with children.

· Encouragement Vs. Praise – Parents often have the mistaken idea that they can build their child’s self-esteem through praising them. Dr. Nelson makes the important point that “self-esteem can’t be given or received, it is developed through a sense of capability and the self-confidence gained from dealing with disappointments, solving problems, and having lots of opportunities to learn from mistakes.” (p. 157)

Chapter 8: Class Meetings

This is a chapter for classroom teachers so I will pass over it here.

Chapter 9: Family Meetings

Dr. Nelsen uses family meetings as a cornerstone of resolving conflicts in a productive manner. There are a number of nuances to running family meetings though. The best information I can give you here is to see Dr. Nelson’s web page on family meetings:https://www.positivediscipline.com/articles/family-meetings

Psychology Today has a good web site with 10 tips on family meetings: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/emotional-fitness/201209/10-tips-holding-family-meeting