Pre-School and Daycare

School is against timeouts

Is it somewhat normal for a preschool to be against the timeout method?  At my LO's preschool, they wanted all parents to committ to "redirection" rather than timeouts.  I think "redirection" is excellent but if it doesn't work, I've personally done time outs for my LO and they seem to work great.  We just do 20 seconds and I have her count with me (learns to count at the same time!). 

Just curious if it's normal for schools to say timeouts is a bad method.  They say too much negativity is associated with it.

Re: School is against timeouts

  • Well, with a lot of kids they are overused and don't really work, but I'm not sure I think it's the school's business how you discipline in your home as long as you teach your child to respect the way things are done at school.  You know what works for your child, and it may not be what works for mine, or what their teaching "philosophy" says is best. 
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  • Our preschool is the same way. No timeouts, just redirection. This is our second year there and it does work. From what I see there are not any behavior problems. His teacher focuses on positive reinforcement.
  • imageErin&Rod:
    Our preschool is the same way. No timeouts, just redirection. This is our second year there and it does work. From what I see there are not any behavior problems. His teacher focuses on positive reinforcement.
    Ditto.
    DS born via c/s 11/08 and med-free GD VBAC DD 3/11! Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • How old is your DC?  I think TO's effectiveness really depends on the child and I personally only like them for my kids when things get heated and we all need to take a break before talking about how we can make better choices.  I like it when schools have a "safe place" where kids can regroup and then talk about doing it better the next time.  I do think TO's are kind of negative, especially if you don't focus on the making better choices next time part. 
    DS1 age 7, DD age 5 and DS2 born 4/3/12
  • our school doesn't do them either and I'm fine with that.  We don't do them at home either.  I can see how in a group setting it could really be overused.  IMO most timeouts seem to be more about the parent calming down than the kid.  Redirection works for my DD 90% of the time, sometimes we do a kind of T/O but we don't call it that.  More like we just step away and talk about it.
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  • Ours does "sit outs" and I think it's perfect. It just means he isn't allowed to have a turn at whatever they're doing. I think it's pretty effective.
  • There are not TO's are school but there has never been any discussion of how we disciple at home.  Are you in a Montossori or Reggio school?  Those are the only one I know that do contracts regarding behavior at home.  I think redirection is great but my oldest is a kid that it doesn't work for and never has.  Even prior to the age of 1 you could not redirect that kid for anything.  I used to think there was something wrong with my parenting until I had DS #2 and saw how redirection actually worked on a kid Surprise So basically, I'd wouldn't be ok with a school that told me I had to do something a certain way at home.
  • imageErin&Rod:
    Our preschool is the same way. No timeouts, just redirection. This is our second year there and it does work. From what I see there are not any behavior problems. His teacher focuses on positive reinforcement.

    ditto all of this for us too.

    Redirection and having the child put themselves in the other child's shoes (if/when appropriate). Lots of positive reinforcement.

    Time-outs don't work for us at home, so we don't do them at home either. But the school hasn't talked to us about what type of discipline we use at home.

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  • My kids daycare preschool does not use time-outs at school as it is just too hard to do it there.  In the preschool classes, they have up to 20 kids with 2 teachers and I don't know many kids that will go sit on a chair by themself for whatever amount of time is set.  They will pull the child from the group and discuss the situation and the child will then be directed to something else or allowed back into the group.  It works great.  I think when it comes down to it, they sort of are doing time outs but just in a different manner - it is pulling the child away from whatever the situation was and giving them time to cool down - that is really what a time out is meant to do.  I don't use time outs as punishment at home, I have my kids go cool down and come back when they be nice, not hit, etc. 
    Jenni Mom to DD#1 - 6-16-06 DD#2 - 3-13-08 
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