My toddler is beginning to test the waters of his independence, and subsequently I’ve been reading up on the most effective discipline techniques for the under-two population.
A common theme is to label the behavior as negative but not the child.
It’s the difference between saying, “Throwing food on the floor is bad!” versus “You’re a bad boy!” The first focuses on the undesirable action without negatively labeling my son as a person.
Turns out that technique is as effective with a patient as it is with my toddler.
Research from the University of California, San Diego has found that leaving the doctor’s office feeling guilty and ashamed is incredibly common. A 2009 survey found that over 50 percent of people have experienced shame based on a conversation with their doctor.
Today I’m over at No Sweat discussing this phenomenon and brainstorming ways to ensure you leave the doctor feeling good instead of guilty. Check it out!
image via Kurhan on sxc.hu
4 responses to “Does Your Doctor Make You Feel Guilty?”
Heading over to check it out now!
Awesome topic, heading over!
Heading over to read the rest, but before I do, I just had to share a post a wrote a while back on the first topic you touched on (labeling the action, not the child). I don’t normally post links but I had to share considering we seem to be thinking along the same lines. Here’s the link:
http://www.familymadesimple.com/2012/08/label-action-not-your-child.html
(It was a guest post.)
Heading over to *your* guest post now 🙂
I’m so glad you shared this post, Nina, because it’s a great one! It was so helpful for me to learn that this is actually treated differently in the Spanish language. That’s something that will stick with me!