What Every Parent Should Know About Timeouts

9:10:19

2019-01-29

2310

Timeouts are a disciplinary tool that is widely misunderstood and frequently misused. Everyone has heard of timeouts, and they seem simple to use. Your child does something wrong, you send her to sit by herself for some set period of time. But, perhaps surprisingly, this is all many parents know about timeouts.

The goal of a timeout, or of any disciplinary tool, is to improve your child’s behavior. When used correctly, timeouts are highly effective for achieving this goal. Decades of research demonstrate the effectiveness of timeouts (Kazdin, 2013). The timeout technique follows a simple logic. Attention feeds behavior. So, to stop the behavior, create a brief break in all types of attention – demands, threats, explanations, rewards, hugs – everything. This stops the behavior in the moment. It does not stop the behavior in the future, and it does not teach the desired behavior. Those require additional steps, which are all part of an overall discipline plan.

To be clear, timeouts are only a tool you can use to control the problem behavior while you work on replacing it with a desired behavior – the true objective of any form of discipline. So, how can you use timeouts effectively?

Timeouts should be:

Used sparingly. They are only one technique in a discipline plan, so don’t over-rely on them. If you give more than one or two each day for the same behavior, that is too much.
Brief. Research shows that timeouts’ positive effect on behavior is within the first one or two minutes (Kazdin, 2013). Extra time may satisfy your sense of justice, but it does nothing to change the behavior.
Immediate. A timeout should follow the behavior that made the timeout necessary as soon as possible. Delayed timeouts are ineffective.
Done in isolation from interaction with others. You can ignore your child for a brief period (where she otherwise might receive attention) or have her sit in a corner of a room (where it still might be reinforcing to see others). The key is to remove as many sources of reinforcement as possible. Attention is reinforcement because it increases the probability of the behavior it follows. Research shows that any form of attention, positive or negative, tends to increase the likelihood of the behavior occurring again (Kazdin, 2013).
Administered calmly, not in anger or as an act of vengeance, but as an expected response to the behavior.
Administered without repeated warnings. Make clear to your child before misbehavior which behaviors will lead to a timeout and what the timeout will be. Then be consistent about using timeouts when the behavior occurs, every time. Warnings lose their effect if not followed by consequences, and are unnecessary if your child has been told what to expect before the behavior occurs.
Praised when completed. If your child goes to the isolated spot when asked, and completes the timeout, praise the specific behavior when complete: “It’s good that you went to timeout like I asked you, and that you sat quietly the whole time, that was wonderful.” Verbal encouragement should be combined with physical contact if possible – a gentle pat, high five, or other contact. Even though it may feel strange to praise your child as part of discipline, remember that actions followed by reinforcement will be strengthened and more likely to occur in the future. You want your child to comply with timeouts when they are necessary.
Followed by a return to the task that was interrupted by misbehavior and timeout. Timeouts should not let your child off the hook of engaging in the behavior you want to see in the first place. This also provides an opportunity to positively reinforce the desired behavior, further strengthening the likelihood that your child will choose the desired behavior over the undesired behavior next time.

By Alan E. Kazdin, Psychology Benefits

Nature

68 quadrillion Miles: Scientists Map the Vast Hidden Fungal Network on Earth for the First Time

2026-06-25

Sea Level Rise Is Swallowing Farmland at Alarming Rates

2026-06-23

Scientists Uncover the Hidden Process That Can Turn Magma into an Explosive Force

2026-06-20

Hidden Solar Storms May Be Lighting the Skies of Japan with Massive Red Auroras

2026-06-15

Rising Seas Could Turn Mangroves from Climate Heroes into Carbon Sources

2026-06-13

The World Praised This Wolverine Program. Then Everything Changed

2026-06-08

NASA Captures Typhoon Jangmi Massive Eye in Stunning Nighttime Image

2026-06-06

Largest Known Wild Chimpanzee Community Breaks Apart After Decades of Unity

2026-06-03

Scientists Warn Himalayan Rivers Are Becoming Increasingly Unstable

2026-05-31

Cranberry Juice Could Fight Antibiotic Resistance

2026-05-26

Get advices

The Shortest Road to Success

2026-04-14

The Bounteous Source of Streng ... read more

2026-03-29

Foresight

2026-03-24

Aligning Goals with Capacities

2026-03-18

1	Your Goals May Harm You If You Cannot Ac ... read more

2	You Always Have a Choice

3	Effectiveness of Training

4	How Do We Respond to Provocation?

5	Localization of Technology

6	Rationalizing Reactions

7	Why Do We Learn?

8	Take Responsibility for Your Choices

9	The Key to Success in Your Work and Life

SOCIETY AFFAIRS

The Bounteous Source of Strength ... read more

Steadiness in Friendship

Lack of Will Power the Obstacle to Success ... read more

Vigilance in the Midst of Problems ... read more

The Scope of Human Possibilities ... read more

How to Not Be Tempted to Eat Junk Food ... read more

The Waves of Change Created by Outstanding Persona ... read more

Tenacity and Victory

Self-Suggestion

Secured Spiritual Well-Being by Means of Fruitful ... read more

Family & Life

10:43:29 2026-06-16

Interpretation of Sura al-Nur - Verse 63

11:15:13 2026-06-14

Interpretation of Sura al-Nur - Verse 62 ... read more

11:31:0 2026-06-09

Interpretation of Sura al-Nur - Verse 61

11:16:53 2026-06-07

Islamic Idelogies

Flattery is Reprehensible

11:35:3 2026-06-27

Islam and the Propagation of Moral Virtues ... read more

11:13:8 2026-06-24

The Great Harms of Ingratitude

10:44:49 2026-06-21

The Campaign Against Vices

10:45:6 2026-06-16

Holy Prophet

A Mathematical Approach to the Quran

10:52:33 2024-02-16

mediation

2:36:46 2023-06-04

what Allah hates the most

5:1:47 2023-06-01

allahs fort

11:41:7 2023-05-30

Prophet ‘s progeny

striving for success

2:35:47 2023-06-04

Imam Ali Describes the Holy Quran

5:0:38 2023-06-01

livelihood

11:40:13 2023-05-30

silence about wisdom

3:36:19 2023-05-29

Science and technology

A classic p

Even GPT-5 Failed This Human Attention Test

2:0:26

2026-06-25

Researchers

Scientists Finally Uncover Why Solid-State Batteri ... read more

8:47:45

2026-06-23

A self-regu

Battery-Free Artificial Photosynthesis Turns Sunli ... read more

11:0:48

2026-06-20

Creating tr

This Strange Crystal Bends Light Like Nothing Else ... read more

2:3:20

2026-06-15

Health &Fitness

Some Questions about sore throat

11:39:55

2026-06-27

Scientists Discover Troubling Link Between Process ... read more

2:1:30

2026-06-25

How do I treat a fever?

11:15:59

2026-06-24

MOST VIEWS

Importance of Media

9:3:43 2018-11-05

10 benefits of Marriage in Islam

7:5:22 2019-04-08

benefits of reciting surat yunus, hud &

9:45:7 2018-12-24

advantages & disadvantages of divorce

11:35:12 2018-06-10

Is money everything in life?

6:0:51 2018-10-16

Illuminations

abbas-ibn-firnas

3:42:22 2021-12-24

belief cause cleanliness

10:47:11 2022-11-22

11:11:59 2023-02-01

2:11:12 2022-10-15

10:43:56 2022-06-22

4:2:19 2022-10-10

7:32:24 2022-02-14

IMmORTAL Words

Isaac Newton once said: "Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who sets the planets in motion."

5:41:46 2023-03-18

Albert Einstein once said: "Imagination is more important than science for it surrounds the world"

10:13:17 2022-06-08

The first student of Islam, Al-Imam Ali-Ibn- Abi Talib (peace be upon him) said: "Worshiping acts is like a drop of water in the sea of directing to righteousness, and what is better than directing to righteousness is saying the right at the presence of an oppressor"

1:4:11 2022-05-26

Verner Heisenberg
The German theoretical physicist and the key pioneer of quantum mechanics said:
"The first gulp from the glass of nature sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass, God is waiting for you"

8:58:43 2022-04-19

A man who lies to himself , and believes his own lies becomes unable to recognize truth , either in himself or in anyone else , and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others.

When he has no respect for anyone , he can no longer love , and , in order to divert himself , having no love in him, he yields to his impulses , indulges in the lowest forms of pleasure , and behaves in the end like an animal .

And it all comes from lying - lying to others and to yourself .

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

10:28:46 2022-03-16

Reality Of Islam

MOST VIEWS

IMmORTAL Words