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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>SA DCB Punished At Home With Pushups/Physical Exercise?
daycarediva 04:53 PM 04-30-2013
This was recommended by a behavioral therapist to dcm of SA dcb as an alternate for timeout. Dcb is diagnosed as ADHD, but I have very very few issues with him. Mom has major ones that I have witnessed. I just think this will be another 'nothing works' half hearted attempt at discipline and follow through.

What is your unbiased opinion on 'pt' as punishment?
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Angelsj 05:20 PM 04-30-2013
The thing is, boys need a physical outlet that he may not be getting elsewhere. I think it really depends on the parent's attitude. We have always used physical redirection in our boys, not really so much as "punishment."
Example:
Let's say the 12-14 yo is getting mouthy with mom, not wanting to do his homework, or just all around moody and uncooperative. Hmmm... See that fire-pit? Dad says it needs to be moved over here. See that pile of wood? I need it all stacked right here...
It isn't so much punishment, as an outlet for their aggression and feelings. Most of the time, they feel a lot better after a good workout, per se.
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daycare 05:24 PM 04-30-2013
I think it depends on what it is and how it is administered. I have one here that is ADHD and when she can't control herself I give her this huge bouncy ball to sit on and bounce until her hearts content. She loves the sitting bounce ball and has to do it several times today. I don't use it as a form of punishment, but yet redirection. A place for her to get it all out......

it works for her. She really needs this option..maybe something like this would work for this kid?
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Willow 05:54 PM 04-30-2013
Would all depend on the age of the kid and if it's being used as a consequential outlet or as full on corporal punishment.

Kids can permanently injure themselves and cause bone/joint deterioration if they exercise excessively. Growing bodies aren't meant to endure repetitive or high impact exercises that get to the point where they cause physical pain.
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SilverSabre25 06:11 PM 04-30-2013
For an teen with ADHD, yes, I think time out would be completely useless and physical work and exercise is a great idea. So long as it's not done abusively...which of course, anything can be taken to abusive extremes. Kids with ADHD *need* the physical movement with their bodies; it's one of the reasons that kids with ADHD tend not to thrive in public school where the prime punishment is to take away recess. "you can't hold your body still so let's punish you by making you hold your body still instead of bleeding off that excess energy so you have a better chance at success...oops, now you're even WORSE in the afternoon..."
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JenNJ 06:15 PM 04-30-2013
I think a better outlet would be martial arts/sparing of some sort. But this is totally biased as my kids are in martial arts and I see the effect it has on their behavior long after class has ended.

The respect it instills is invaluable. It carries over into every aspect of their lives -- home, school, public, etc. I am stopped regularly and complimented on their manners and behavior and I think it is directly related to their discipline on the mats.
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Blackcat31 06:20 PM 04-30-2013
Originally Posted by JenNJ:
I think a better outlet would be martial arts/sparing of some sort. But this is totally biased as my kids are in martial arts and I see the effect it has on their behavior long after class has ended.

The respect it instills is invaluable. It carries over into every aspect of their lives -- home, school, public, etc. I am stopped regularly and complimented on their manners and behavior and I think it is directly related to their discipline on the mats.
I enrolled my DS in martial arts classes hoping he would learn that very thing.

Unfortunately, with his ADHD, he couldnt' stand in line and be patient while the instructor was demonstrating things without touching others or wiggling his leg or swinging his arms or sighing loudly or bouncing up and down or whispering to his friend or waving at me or fiddling with his belt or rolling up his cuffs or swaying back and forth.......

......just like that ^^

.....he couldn't pay attention long enough to learn anything.
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daycarediva 03:34 AM 05-01-2013
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
I enrolled my DS in martial arts classes hoping he would learn that very thing.

Unfortunately, with his ADHD, he couldnt' stand in line and be patient while the instructor was demonstrating things without touching others or wiggling his leg or swinging his arms or sighing loudly or bouncing up and down or whispering to his friend or waving at me or fiddling with his belt or rolling up his cuffs or swaying back and forth.......

......just like that ^^

.....he couldn't pay attention long enough to learn anything.
Bc that is this little guy!

Yesterday he refused to get in the car to go to school, so dcm had him 'take a lap' around her yard, after each lap she says she stopped him and asked if he was ready to go to school yet.... 3 laps and he decided he better get in the car. Normally a morning like that she would have to bring him in kicking and screaming to school and they would put him in the padded support room. Instead he had a great day.

Yes, his school does time out and takes away recess. Some days when he gets to me we all go outside and kick a ball for a while and run it out. I don't even engage him other than "Bad day, huh? Lets go outside." He gets very little outdoors time anywhere else, and imho that's why he is so well behaved and under control here.
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MsLaura529 04:08 AM 05-01-2013
Originally Posted by Angelsj:
Example:
Let's say the 12-14 yo is getting mouthy with mom, not wanting to do his homework, or just all around moody and uncooperative. Hmmm... See that fire-pit? Dad says it needs to be moved over here. See that pile of wood? I need it all stacked right here...
It isn't so much punishment, as an outlet for their aggression and feelings. Most of the time, they feel a lot better after a good workout, per se.
My DH wasn't a "trouble" kid, but he did talk back to his parents a lot when he was around 8 or 9 ... they lived on a large two acre lot with a a quarter of it being taken up by corn field. If he started having an attitude toward his mom (totally untolerated with his dad), his dad would bring him the wagon and tell him to go fill it up with all the rocks he could find in the corn field ... it would sit by the back door. THen, the next time he got in trouble, his "job" would be to go put all the rocks back. And this would go back and forth and back and forth until the lesson was learned.
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jessrlee 05:41 AM 05-01-2013
Our daughters have always had pt or extra chores for discipline. What good does sitting in a corner do? Wash all of the baseboards and think about why chatting in class is a bad idea . 5th grade our baseboards sparkled
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AfterSchoolMom 05:44 AM 05-01-2013
I've never understood the public school mindset of punishing overactive children by taking away their only physical outlet during the school day.

I'm actually a fan of PT for kids as an alternative to time out, as long as it's done in order to let them blow off steam and not to punish them to the point of pain. We often have our kids, my middle son in particular (who does have ADHD), take a lap or two around the yard. Sometimes we have the older two do it and race, especially when they've been fighting.

Now, if you're screaming and yelling at them while they do pushups and mountain climbers, bootcamp style...that's too much.
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bunnyslippers 06:57 AM 05-01-2013
I did my Master's thesis on using exercise to decrease self-stimulatory behavior in children with autism. My study concluded that exercise did decrease levels of self-stimulatory behavior in almost all of my subjects.

In my opinion, using exercise can be effective in helping to decrease aberrant behavior.
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Heidi 07:46 AM 05-01-2013
Originally Posted by SilverSabre25:
For an teen with ADHD, yes, I think time out would be completely useless and physical work and exercise is a great idea. So long as it's not done abusively...which of course, anything can be taken to abusive extremes. Kids with ADHD *need* the physical movement with their bodies; it's one of the reasons that kids with ADHD tend not to thrive in public school where the prime punishment is to take away recess. "you can't hold your body still so let's punish you by making you hold your body still instead of bleeding off that excess energy so you have a better chance at success...oops, now you're even WORSE in the afternoon..."


I can't tell you how many times I've argued that taking away recess is the stupidist punishment ever. Personally, if I had a kid with ADHD in my classroom, I'd find reasons to have him moving. "Oh....student...could you run this pencil to the principle's office for me? I accidently borrowed it this morning" "Oh, student...could you go take this to the gym teacher...?" etc.

Oh...and maybe teach them some strategies to deal with their need to fidget and their propensity for being distracted?
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MarinaVanessa 07:54 AM 05-01-2013
Originally Posted by SilverSabre25:
For an teen with ADHD, yes, I think time out would be completely useless and physical work and exercise is a great idea. So long as it's not done abusively...which of course, anything can be taken to abusive extremes. Kids with ADHD *need* the physical movement with their bodies; it's one of the reasons that kids with ADHD tend not to thrive in public school where the prime punishment is to take away recess. "you can't hold your body still so let's punish you by making you hold your body still instead of bleeding off that excess energy so you have a better chance at success...oops, now you're even WORSE in the afternoon..."
Originally Posted by bunnyslippers:
I did my Master's thesis on using exercise to decrease self-stimulatory behavior in children with autism. My study concluded that exercise did decrease levels of self-stimulatory behavior in almost all of my subjects.

In my opinion, using exercise can be effective in helping to decrease aberrant behavior.
My DD has ADHD and when she was at school and would get in trouble she would have her recess taken away, her behavior wouldn't really change after that but it certainly didn't improve. Even after speaking with her last teacher about it (1st grade) her teacher continued to take recess privileges and had her sit in class doing an assignment or something or had her sit outside on "the bench" (where the naughty kids sit). Okay, I said ... suit yourself. We had a HARD 1st grade year.

This year when I immediately told her 2nd grade teacher about her ADHD i was SO THANKFUL that her teacher seemed confident and not worried at all, she reassured me that it wasn't her "first rodeo" and she had an adult son with ADHD and knew all the tricks. She never took physical movement out of her day (recess) and even asked if it were ok to send her on "running errands" if she got fidgety (if her teacher has something to turn in to the office she asks my DD to go but has her run there and back). Of course I said yes. Teacher says it's problem solved.

This also works for me too here at home with my own kids and my daycare kids. If the kids aren't behaving usually it's because they have too much energy and I give them movement activities to do. It really does work. I wouldn't go overboard or anything but some running, jumping, climbing etc. activity can really make a difference.
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Meyou 08:10 AM 05-01-2013
I'm ok with it as long as it is to get energy/emotion out. My dd with ADHD is more like Blackcat's son that I really want to admit to myself so organized sport is not an option for her right now. I've been known to send her on laps around the house when she needs to decompress but yard chores, active chores inside like vacuuming and general active outside playing all work wonders for her. Timeouts and grounding are practically pointless for her because she will play with the air if I took everything away so short term focused tasks are far more effective.

I also have her write lines occasionally instead of grounding. 60 minutes at the table to write 50 lines or so is the worst possible torture I could inflict on my hyper girl. Muhahaha! I save it for special occasions.
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littlemissmuffet 09:38 AM 05-01-2013
Little drives me more insane than knowing a child's physical activities are being taken away as consequences... so I am ALL FOR physical activity (and chores even) being used as a disiplinary/redirection method!
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youretooloud 11:52 AM 05-01-2013
Originally Posted by littlemissmuffet:
Little drives me more insane than knowing a child's physical activities are being taken away as consequences... so I am ALL FOR physical activity (and chores even) being used as a disiplinary/redirection method!
Me too! My brother was a pain in the neck in school. Not a week went by in school that I didn't look out from my classroom window to see my brother doing some sort of physical labor or activity as a consequence to something he had done... well into junior high. (picking up trash, setting cones out for P.E...etc)

We joked that he was going to get a garbage can with his name on it.

At home, he mowed lawns, shoveled snow, scraped ice.... when we ran out of grass to mow, he was sent to the neighbor's to mow their yard.

He also built quite a few fences in his childhood. We had an awesome fence in a few yards because otherwise, he was too hard to handle unless he had a project.
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Tags:adhd, punishment, therapist
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