After more than 25 years of practice as a clinical child psychologist in New Jersey, Beth Grosshans retired from active practice to focus on speaking and writing to parents and educators about issues, such as child discipline and development. Drawing on her experience operating her practice, Beth Grosshans also wrote the book "Beyond Time Out: From Chaos to Calm," in which she asserts that parents must take back parental control in order to help children with behavioral issues and anxiety.

1. Four Simple
Tips for Using
Time Out to
Correct
Behavior
BETH
GROSSHANS

2. Introduction
After more than 25 years of practice as a clinical child psychologist in
New Jersey, Beth Grosshans retired from active practice to focus on
speaking and writing to parents and educators about issues, such as
child discipline and development. Drawing on her experience operating
her practice, Beth Grosshans also wrote the book "Beyond Time Out:
From Chaos to Calm," in which she asserts that parents must take back
parental control in order to help children with behavioral issues and
anxiety.
A common strategy parents often use to correct behavioral issues is
assigning their children a time out. Listed below are a few simple ways
to use time outs to correct a child's behavior.
1. Keep time outs short, around 1 minute for each year of the child’s
age. This prevents the child from feeling isolated and rejected.

3. Time Out
2. Make sure the child understands the reason for the time out. It’s
important for the child to understand what lead to the punishment to
help them learn.
3. Use time outs sparingly, but also consistently. If time out is the
technique used to correct a specific negative behavior, it’s important to
use it each time that specific behavior occurs.
4. Use time out as a punishment for children around three to eight
years old. Before three, children aren’t quite ready to understand what
time out means, so it won’t be as effective.