Discipline and Punishment

Abstract

In all discussions of bringing up children, whether handicapped or not, the question of discipline and punishment rears its ugly head. Among parents in general there is a wide spectrum of views, ranging from the opinion that one must firmly enforce a given set of rules to a feeling that children should come to decide for themselves how they should behave. With parents of deaf children, too, both ends of this spectrum were represented. Boy, 2 years, severely deaf I've quite a different concept from many people, you know, not talking in terms of strict. I don't think the word applies. Children are children; they're developing human beings and you guide and assist their development, not for basic moral principles. I don't have a standard of table manners I expect him to reach, but I do hope to help him understand that he's not the only one at the table, and that he's got to take his place. Girl, 4 years, profoundly deaf You've just got to (smack deaf children). I mean you can't let them rule you. Once you let them get topside of you, you might as well pack up and go home. You've got to show them who's the boss, and you've got to stick it out to the end. ‘I think he's got to be treated more like a normal child than a normal child ’ Some parents were emphatic in the view that the best hope their child had of being integrated into normal adult society was to be treated as normally as possible.

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