Why shouting at children is never the solution
Shout It is not the best way to educate. It is true that many times parents do not know how to react after a prolonged tantrum or a prank in which the child has crossed the line. But no, raising your voice should disappear from our list of options in these cases.
Educate without shouting is to say the same to the children, but with another volume and tone. It is not so difficult and the effects will be more positive and effective. Why? The first reason is obvious: parents are an example for children. If they are always shouted at, the little ones will believe that shouting is normal.
Five reasons not to shout to educate
1. Shouting makes children deaf. "Any explanation or learning that we want to give them with the scream will be useless, because the ears of our children close automatically after hearing it." This is explained by Mireia Navarro Vera, director of the psychology and speech therapy center El Teu Espai.
2. Shouting does not help manage emotions. If we only shout at our children (or do it frequently), what we are teaching them is to "manage anger and anger with aggression," says Navarro. We must encourage self-control.
3. Screaming scares. For children to learn certain attitudes requires time and, above all, effort. However, when we shout at them, we frighten them and then we get angry. We will not have managed to act as we wished or to internalize what we were trying to teach.
4. Shouting drives our children away from us. "We lose positive authority," says this psychologist who says that with this behavior we cause "emotional distress" and "we put a stone in a wall that separates us."
5. Shouting at children lowers their self-esteem. How would we feel if whoever we love only shouts at us and tells us how bad we do things? Probably, our self-esteem would be affected. That happens to children. "Far from feeling that we are proud of their achievements and their efforts, what they feel is that they never measure up, whatever they do, the cries always appear and erase any feeling of having done something right", warns this expert.
Damián Montero
