Originally Posted by Live and Learn:
For those providers who use timeouts I have three questions....
1)What is your adult to child ratio?
2)How many hours a day are your dc kiddies in you care?
3)How often do you timeouts?
1) Up until now, the "adults" outweigh the children. I have been running 2-3 children to up to all 3 of us "workers".
2)9.5 hours
3) As often as necessary, although it's not been that necessary lately.
I have to agree with Robin on this time-out vs. redirection thing. Maybe it's my age, but I think the "experts" recommend coddling these kids to the point of irresponsibility and having a whole generation of entitled kids (and parents, nowadays). I guess I'm old school, but if a kid needs a swat on the behind, they should get one. It will NOT break their little spirits or lead to aggressive, violent children. It's the children who are not effectively disciplined who tend to be aggressive and violent. I'm not talking about beating the kids, or even spanking for every little offense, but kids need to be taught right from wrong, and need to learn to be responsible for their actions, and know there are consequences for every behavior (good and bad). And no, I do not "spank" dc kids, and I know this isn't about spanking, so I'll get back on track.
Redirection does not work with all kids or in all situations. I had 14 mo old dcb who recently left my care. Redirection DID NOT work with him. As an example, he would be banging on a window with a toy bowling pin. Redirect him to a toy drum to beat on, he looks at the drum, continues to beat on window. I move him away from window with drum and he gets up and moves back to the window to beat on the window again. Move, redirect, goes back at it. Over and over. Stop. Remove him from window, take away pins, put him in TO (in an exersaucer) and he learns that he cannot beat on the window. A few times of this and he no longer beats on the window. You can see his smart little baby-brain working, because next time he gets those pins and goes to the window, he thinks about beating on the window, but he doesn't. He doesn't want to be restrained in an area that is not fun (time out). Redirection did not work at all, but time out did. That is just one example with this child.
2 year old dcb - came to me in June, and was in daily (sometimes hourly) time out. Talking to him did not work. Redirecting worked marginally well, for the moment, but did not stop dcb from going back and doing the same thing over again a few minutes later. Now, he is one of the best behaved children here. He is a true joy to have here and he KNOWS what "no" means, and knows what the consequences of doing something wrong is here, and he doesn't like it. Now, we go weeks, sometimes months, without a time out. He knows the rules here and follows them!
Both of those children love being here. I did not hurt their little psyches by disciplining them - just the opposite - they love to be here and play with their friends who are also well behaved and fun to play with. You can also tell that their parents do not have the same rules or level of discipline that I have, because the first of the week is always a little rough, and especially if they had more than a 2 day weekend.