Corporal punishment or positive disciplining? Which is which would best work out for the good of children?

This issue was answered recently, in the Social Welfare and Development (SWD) Forum organized by the DSWD, to some 45 Day Care Workers regionwide, at the Sea Haus Vista in Tacloban City.

Said Yvonne Abonales, the Policy and Plans Division Chief, the DSWD is currently promoting Positive Discipline as a healthy approach to parenting. She revealed that the agency has joined hands with the Save the Children International (SCI) in the training of future trainers who will monitor the impact of positive discipline trainings in the communities.

Darlene Ruz Dancel of the DSWD’s Social Technology Bureau in Manila, who conducted the orientation, revealed that the SCI’s positive discipline framework will be integrated into the DSWD’s training modules on parenting, capability building of trainers, staff, and partners, and in coming up with guidelines for the agency’s residential care centers. She added that the goal of the Department is to have the framework institutionalized and be made part in the Parent Effectiveness Services (PES), Empowerment and Re-affirmation of Paternal Abilities Training (ERPAT) and Family Development Sessions of the PANTAWID PAMILYANG PILIPINO PROGRAM (the agency’s conditional cash Transfer Program) by year 2013.

Meanwhile, DSWD Field Office Eight Director Leticia Diokno reiterated what Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Juliano Soliman said that “several studies have shown that children who go through corporal punishment as a form of discipline experienced adverse effects as adults.” Diokno further explained that corporate punishment involves some forms of violence against children; hence the practice of positive discipline is extremely necessary.