r/ScienceBasedParenting on Reddit: Time outs or “sit and watch” curiosity
56 votes, 37 comments. Hello, I have been anti-time out as a parent and as an ECE professional. The problem is at this point I am struggling to find… We see the function- child has learned that biting and hitting is quite effective and has been doing so for 2 years. The biting is frequent (1-2 successful bites and many attempts stopped in a day) and intense with some bites breaking the skin. We have implemented sit and watch as a consequence.As it stands, a time-out in practice would be 2 warnings and then removal. I would say something along the lines of “you have done XYZ and have had multiple messages, now we sit and watch”. I then bring the child to sit down to observe the appropriate play that is happening.I will “sports cast” appropriate play that we observe. After 2 minutes I will remind the child why we are there, aak them if they are ready to be safe, and let them know that we will return to sit and watch if any maladaptive behavior is exhibited.Sit with a teacher and watch children with teacher pointing out what children are doing successfully.
