According to a national organization of pediatricians and other healthcare professionals, spanking "applied appropriately" is not a bad word or a bad practice.
A report published in the journal Pediatrics again sounds an alarm against parents spanking their children. But Dr. Den Trumbull, president of the American College of Pediatricians, calls the report "biased" and points out that the cry against the disciplinary spanking comes from the usual sources.
He says research has shown that when reasoning is less effective with children between the ages of two and six, spanking can be effective.
"Sometimes the milder measures, such as time out, disapproval, logical consequences, are ineffective," he notes. "And in these settings, spanking, appropriately applied, can be very effective. If used early on, it's not needed much later on, because a child begins to comply."
Dr. Trumbull says children need encouragement, love and behavioral correction to become well adjusted.
"Without correction, children are given the impression that their indulgences are just fine, that they can chart their own path, that they are wiser than they actually are," the American College of Pediatricians president poses. "They're given that impression by their parents, and basically, chaos sets in."
For parents to achieve order in the home and teach children proper self-control, Trumbull believes "discipline, including positive reinforcement and negative reinforcements, which would involve correction, is necessary."
He concludes that those seeking a legal ban on spanking are doing a disservice to children and tying the hands of parents.