英語短文：管教孩子的妙招
英語短文：
When it comes to disciplining her generally well-behaved kids, Heather Henderson has tried all the popular tricks. She's tried taking toys away. (Her boys, ages 4 and 6, never miss them.) She's tried calm explanations about why a particular behavior -- like hitting your brother -- is wrong. (It doesn't seem to sink in.) And she's tried timeouts. 'The older one will scream and yell and bang on walls. He just loses it,' says the 41-year-old stay-at-home mother in Syracuse, N.Y.
41歲的亨德森(Heather Henderson)是紐約州錫拉丘茲(Syracuse)的一位全職媽媽。為了管教兩個總體表現還算不錯的孩子，亨德森把所有流行的方法都試遍了。她嘗試過沒收玩具（她四歲和六歲的兒子對此從不在乎）。她嘗試過平心靜氣地解釋為什么某種行為──比如打自己的兄弟──是不對的（但孩子們似乎聽不進去）。她還嘗試過關禁閉。她說：“大兒子會尖叫、大喊、拍墻。他變得狂怒不已。”
What can be more effective are techniques that psychologists often use with the most difficult kids, including children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder. Approaches, with names like 'parent management training' and 'parent-child interaction therapy,' are backed up by hundreds of research studies and they work on typical kids, too. But while some of the approaches' components find their way into popular advice books, the tactics remain little known among the general public.
心理學家常對最棘手的孩子（包括有注意缺陷多動障礙和對立違抗性障礙的孩子）使用的技巧是比較有效的。這些方法（名為“家長管理訓練”、“親子互動療法”等）背后有數百項研究的支持，它們也能在普通孩子身上奏效。盡管流行育兒書會提及這些方法的部分元素，但相關策略依然鮮為普通大眾所知。
The general strategy is this: Instead of just focusing on what happens when a child acts out, parents should first decide what behaviors they want to see in their kids (cleaning their room, getting ready for school on time, playing nicely with a sibling). Then they praise those behaviors when they see them. 'You start praising them and it increases the frequency of good behavior,' says Timothy Verduin, clinical assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Child Study Center at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York.
總體策略是這樣的：家長不應該只關注孩子做了些什么，而應該先確定他們想在孩子身上看到哪些行為（比如打掃自己的房間，按時為上學做好準備，與兄弟姐妹好好相處），然后在發現這些行為時予以表揚。紐約大學朗格尼醫療中心(NYU Langone Medical Center)兒童研究中心(Child Study Center)兒童和青少年精神病學臨床助理教授維杜恩(Timothy Verduin)說：“你開始表揚孩子之后，孩子出現好行為的頻率會增加。”
This sounds simple, but in real life can be tough. People's brains have a 'negativity bias,' says Alan E. Kazdin, a professor of psychology and child psychiatry at Yale University and director of the Yale Parenting Center. We pay more attention to when kids misbehave than when they act like angels. Dr. Kazdin recommends at least three or four instances of praise for good behavior for every timeout a kid gets. For young children, praise needs to be effusive and include a hug or some other physical affection, he says.
這聽起來很簡單，但在現實生活中做起來卻很難。耶魯大學(Yale University)心理學和兒童精神病學教授、耶魯育兒研究中心(Yale Parenting Center)主任、知名家長管理訓練專家卡茲丁(Alan E. Kazdin)說，人腦有“負面偏見”。我們更關注孩子表現不好的時候，而不是他們像天使一樣的時候。卡扎丁博士建議，一次禁閉懲罰應該對應至少三到四次的贊揚。他說，對幼童的贊揚應該飽含感情，要包括擁抱或其他身體愛撫。
According to parent management training, when a child does mess up, parents should use mild negative consequences (a short timeout or a verbal reprimand without shouting).
按照家長管理訓練的要求，當孩子搗亂時，家長應該讓孩子承擔溫和的負面后果（短時間關禁閉或者口頭訓斥，不要大喊大叫）。
Giving a child consequences runs counter to some popular advice that parents should only praise their kids. But reprimands and negative nonverbal responses like stern looks, timeouts and taking away privileges led to greater compliance by kids according to a review article published this month in the journal Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review.
讓孩子承擔后果與一些主張家長應當只贊揚孩子的流行建議背道而馳。但上月刊登在《臨床兒童和家庭心理學評論》(Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review)上的一篇綜述論文指出，訓斥和否定性非言語反饋（以嚴厲的目光注視孩子、關禁閉和剝奪特權等）會讓孩子更守規矩。這篇論文回顧了41項有關管教策略和兒童服從行為的研究。
'There's a lot of fear around punishment out there,' says Daniela J. Owen, a clinical psychologist at the San Francisco Bay area Center for Cognitive Therapy in Oakland, Calif. and the lead author of the study. 'Children benefit from boundaries and limits.' The study found that praise and positive nonverbal responses like hugs and rewards like ice cream or stickers, however, didn't lead to greater compliance in the short term. 'If your child is cleaning up and he puts a block in the box and you say 'great job,' it doesn't mean the child is likely to put another block in the box,' says Dr. Owen.
加州奧克蘭(Oakland)舊金山灣地區認知療法中心(San Francisco Bay area Center for Cognitive Therapy)的臨床心理學家、上述論文的第一作者歐文(Daniela J. Owen)說：“許多人害怕懲罰孩子，但設定界限和約束對孩子有好處。”這項研究發現，表揚以及擁抱、獎勵冰淇淋或貼紙等肯定性非語言反饋在短期內不會讓孩子更守規矩。歐文博士說：“如果你的孩子在收拾東西，把一塊積木放進盒子里，你說‘做得好’，這并不意味著孩子會把另一塊積木放進盒子里。”
But in the long run, regular praise does make a child more likely to comply, possibly because the consistent praise strengthens the parent-child relationship overall, Dr. Owen says. The article reviewed 41 studies looking at discipline strategies and child compliance.
但歐文博士說，從長期來看，常常表揚孩子確實更容易讓孩子守規矩，這可能是因為，不斷表揚會讓父母與孩子之間的整體關系更加緊密。
Parents who look for discipline guidance often find conflicting advice from the avalanche of books and mommy blogs and the growing number of so-called parent coaches. (In 2011, 3,520 parenting books were published or distributed in the U.S., up from 2,774 in 2007, according to Bowker Books In Print database.)
尋找兒童管教指導的家長從海量的書籍、媽咪博客和越來越多所謂“家長教練”處獲得的建議常常是相互矛盾的（Bowker Books In Print 數據庫顯示，2011年有3,520本育兒書在美國出版和銷售，多于2007年的2,774本）。
'Many of the things that are recommended we know now to be wrong,' says Dr. Kazdin, a leading expert on parent management training. 'It is the equivalent of telling people to smoke a lot for their health.'
卡茲丁博士說：“書中建議的許多東西我們現在知道是錯誤的。這就像告訴人們抽很多香煙有益健康一樣。”
Parents often torpedo their discipline efforts by giving vague, conditional commands and not giving kids enough time to comply with them, says Dr. Verduin, who practices parent-child interaction therapy. When crossing the street, 'A bad command would be, 'be careful.' A good command would be 'hold my hand,' ' he says. He also instructs parents to count to five to themselves after giving a child a directive, like, for example, 'Put on your coat.' 'Most parents wait a second or two,' he says, before making another command, which can easily devolve into yelling and threats.
從事親子互動療法的維杜恩博士說，家長會給孩子下達模糊、有條件的指令，而且不給孩子足夠的時間去遵守這些指令，這常常會破壞管教的效果。他說，在過馬路的時候，“說‘小心’是不好的指令，說‘拉住我的手’則是好的指令”。他還教家長在給孩子下指令（比如“把外套穿上”）之后默數到五。他說：“多數家長會等一兩秒”，然后下達另一個指令，這就很容易演變成為吼叫和威脅。
The techniques are applicable to all ages, but psychologists note that starting early is better. Once kids hit about 10 or 11, discipline gets a lot harder. 'Parents don't have as much leverage' with tweens and teens, says Dr. Verduin. 'Kids don't care as much what the parents think about them.'
這些技巧對所有年齡的孩子都適用，但心理學家指出，及早開始使用效果會更好。孩子一旦到了10歲或11歲左右，管教難度就會大得多。維杜恩博士說：“家長對十幾歲青少年的影響力沒那么大，這些孩子不太在乎父母怎么看他們。”
Some parents try and reason with young children, which Dr. Kazdin says is bound to fail to change a kid's behavior. Reason doesn't change behavior, which is why stop-smoking messages don't usually work, Dr. Kazdin says. Overly harsh punishments also fail. 'One of the side effects of punishment is noncompliance and aggression,' he says.
一些家長會嘗試和幼童講道理，但卡茲丁博士說，這種方法是不可能改變孩子行為的。他說，講道理不會改變行為，這就是為什么禁煙宣傳一般沒什么用處的原因。太嚴厲的懲罰也會失敗。他說：“懲罰的副作用之一是導致不服從和攻擊性行為。”
Spanking, in particular, has been linked to aggressive behavior in kids and anger problems and increased marital conflict later on in adulthood. Still, 26% of parents 'often' or 'sometimes' spank their 19-to-35-month-old children, according to a 2004 study in the journal Pediatrics, which analyzed survey data collected by the federal government from 2,068 parents of young children.
特別需要指出的是，打屁股與孩子的攻擊性行為有關聯，并且會導致成年后出現情緒憤怒問題，婚姻矛盾也會增加。但2004年刊發于《兒科學》(Pediatrics)的一篇研究論文指出，26%的家長“常常”或“有時”打19到35個月大孩子的屁股。該研究分析了聯邦政府收集的來自2,068名幼童家長的調查數據。
At the Yale Parenting Center, psychologists have found that getting kids to 'practice' temper tantrums can lessen their frequency and intensity. Dr. Kazdin recommends that parents have their kids 'practice' once or twice a day. Gradually, ask the child to delete certain unwanted behaviors from the tantrum, like kicking or screaming. Then effusively praise those diluted tantrums. Soon, for most children, 'the real tantrums start to change,' he says. 'From one to three weeks, they are kind of over.' As for whining, Dr. Kazin recommends whining right along with your child. 'It changes the stimulus. You will likely end up laughing,' he says.
耶魯育兒研究中心的心理學家們發現，讓孩子“練習”發脾氣能夠降低他們鬧脾氣的頻率和強度。卡茲丁博士建議家長讓孩子一天“練習”一到兩次。逐步要求孩子在發脾氣時去除某些你不愿看到的行為，比如踢打或尖叫。然后熱情地贊揚這些經過稀釋的發脾氣行為。他說，很快，對大多數孩子來說，“真正的鬧脾氣行為會開始發生變化。經過一到三周時間，這些鬧脾氣行為就會停止”。至于如何應對孩子哭鬧撒嬌，卡茲丁博士建議與孩子一起哭鬧撒嬌。他說：“這會改變刺激因素，最后你們可能會一起大笑起來。”
Researchers noted that not every technique is effective for every child. Some parents find other creative solutions that work for their kids.
研究人員指出，并不是每種技巧都適用于所有孩子。一些家長會找到適合自己孩子的其他創意解決方案。
Karen Pesapane has found yelling 'pillow fight,' when her two kids are arguing can put a halt to the bickering. 'Their sour attitudes change almost immediately into silliness and I inevitably become their favorite target,' said Ms. Pesapane, a 34-year-old from Silver Spring, Md., who works in fundraising for a nonprofit and has a daughter 10, and a son, 6.
家住馬里蘭州銀泉市(Silver Spring)的佩薩帕內(Karen Pesapane)在一家非盈利機構從事籌款工作，34歲的她有一個10歲的女兒和一個六歲的兒子。她發現，當她的兩個孩子爭吵時，大喊“枕頭戰”能讓斗嘴暫停。佩薩帕內說：“原先懷有敵意的兩個孩子幾乎立馬變傻了，我自然就成了他們最愛的靶子。”
Dayna Even has found spending one hour a day fully focused on her 6-year-old son, Maximilian, means 'he's less likely to act out, he's more likely to play independently and less likely to interrupt adults,' says the 51-year-old writer and tutor in Kailua, Hawaii.
夏威夷凱盧阿(Kailua) 51歲的作家兼輔導老師埃文(Dayna Even)發現，如果每天花一小時將注意力完全放在六歲的兒子馬克西米利安(Maximilian)身上，“他會較少出現情緒失控，更易獨立玩耍，而且更少打攪大人”。
Parents need to take a child's age into account. Benjamin Siegel, professor of pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine notes that it isn't until about age 3 that children can really start to understand and follow rules. Dr. Siegel is the chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee that is currently reworking the organization's guidelines on discipline, last updated in 1998.
家長必須要考慮到孩子的年齡。波士頓大學醫學院(Boston University School of Medicine)的兒科教授西格爾(Benjamin Siegel)指出，孩子要到三歲左右才能真正開始理解和遵守規則。西格爾博士是美國兒科學會(American Academy of Pediatrics)一個委員會的主席，該委員會目前在重新制定美國兒科學會的兒童管教指導原則（最近一次更新是在1998年）。
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