为什么不该对孩子大声嚷嚷?| 纽约时报

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Why You Should Stop Yelling at Your Kids

为什么不该对孩子大声嚷嚷?| 纽约时报

The use of spanking to discipline children has been in decline for 50 years. But yelling? Almost everybody still yells at their kids sometimes, even the parents who know it doesn’t work. Yelling may be the most widespread parental stupidity around today.

50年来,用打屁股的方式来管教孩子的现象越来越少。但大喊大叫呢?几乎所有人还是会不时地对孩子们嚷嚷,即使是那些知道这么做没用的父母。吼叫可能是当今为人父母者最不明智的行为。

 

  • 本段语言知识点积累

spanking /’spæŋkɪŋ/ n. (作为惩罚的)打屁股

discipline v.训练,管教:to teach someone to obey rules and control their behaviour,比如说:•Different cultures have different ways of disciplining their children.不同的文化有不同的管教儿童的方法。

in decline 逐渐势微;正在衰退;If something is in decline or on the decline, it is gradually decreasing in importance, quality, or power. 举个例子:Thankfully the smoking of cigarettes is on the decline.令人欣慰的是,吸烟量在逐渐下降。

 

Households with regular shouting incidents tend to have children with lower self-esteem and higher rates of depression. A 2014 study in The Journal of Child Development demonstrated that yelling produces results similar to physical punishment in children: increased levels of anxiety, stress and depression along with an increase in behavioral problems.

在经常大喊大叫的人家,子女的自尊心往往较弱,抑郁的比例更高。2014年发表在《儿童发育杂志》(Journal of Child Development)上的一项研究表明,冲着孩子大喊大叫会产生类似于体罚的后果:焦虑、压力和抑郁程度增加,行为问题也随之增加。

 

It doesn’t make you look authoritative. It makes you look out of control to your kids. It makes you look weak. And you’re yelling, let’s be honest, because you are weak. Yelling, even more than spanking, is the response of a person who doesn’t know what else to do.

嚷嚷无助于你树立权威。这只会让孩子觉得你失控。让你看起来软弱无能。实话说吧,你之所以大喊大叫就是因为你没辙。嚷嚷甚于打屁股,是父母不知道还能怎么办的反应。

 

  • authoritative /ɔː’θɒrɪtətɪv/ 权威的;威严的;有威信的;Someone or something that is authoritative gives an impression of power and importance and is likely to be obeyed. 比如说:Her smile was warm but authoritative.她的笑容很和蔼,同时又透着威严。

 

But most parents — myself included — find it hard to imagine how to get through the day without yelling. The new research on yelling presents parents with twin problems: What do I do instead? And how do I stop?

但大多数家长——包括我自己在内,发现不用嚷嚷就能度过一天真的很难。关于喊叫的最新研究向父母提出了两个问题:我应该怎么做?要怎么改掉这个习惯?

 

Yelling to stop your kids from running into traffic is not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about yelling as a form of correction. Yelling for correction is ineffective as a tool and merely imprints the habit of yelling onto the children. We yell at our kids over the same stuff every day, and we yell at them some more because the original yelling doesn’t work. Put your clothes away. Come down for dinner. Don’t ride the dog. Stop hitting your brother.

我们在这里讨论的,不是你大声喊叫提醒孩子小心汽车。我们说的是把吼叫作为一种纠正方式。作为一种工具,纠正性的大喊大叫是没有效果的,不过是对孩子习惯性的嚷嚷而已。我们每天会因为同样的事情对子女叫喊,而且由于觉得没有效果,还要越叫越凶。把衣服放好!下来吃饭!不要骑在狗身上!别老打你弟弟!

 

The mere knowledge that yelling is bad, in itself, won’t help, said Alan Kazdin, a professor of psychology and child psychiatry at Yale. Yelling is not a strategy, it’s a release.

耶鲁大学的心理学和儿童精神病学教授艾伦·卡兹丁(Alan Kazdin)说,仅仅知道大喊大叫本身不好是没有用的。它其实并非一种管教孩子的策略,而是你自己的一种发泄手段。

 

“If the goal of the parent is catharsis, I want to get this out of my system and show you how mad I am, well, yelling is probably perfect,” Dr. Kazdin said. “If the goal here is to change something in the child or develop a positive habit in the child, yelling is not the way to do that.” There are other strategies, and they don’t involve screaming like a maniac.

“如果父母的目的是宣泄,我想消消气,并且向你表明我有多生气,好吧,大喊大叫可能是完美的,”卡兹丁说。“如果目标是改变孩子的某些方面,或者在孩子身上培养一种积极的习惯,那么大喊大叫可就行不通了。”还有其他的策略,无需你像疯子一样喊叫。

 

  • catharsis /kə’θɑːsɪs/ n.发泄情绪;情感宣泄;Catharsis is getting rid of unhappy memories or strong emotions such as anger or sadness by expressing them in some way.这个词汇比较生僻,了解一下即可,不需要背过。

 

  • maniac /’meɪnɪæk/ n.举止愚蠢(危险)的人,疯子someone who behaves in a stupid or dangerous way,比如说:•He drove like a maniac to the hospital.他像个疯子似的开车去医院。

 

Dr. Kazdin promotes a program called the ABCs, which stands for antecedents, behaviors and consequences. The antecedent is the setup, telling a child, specifically, what you want them to do before you want them to do it. Behaviors are where the behavior is defined and shaped, modeled by the parent. And the consequence involves an expression of approval when that behavior is performed, an over-the top Broadway-style belt-it-to-the-back-row expression of praise with an accompanying physical gesture of approval.

卡兹丁在推广一个名为ABCs的项目,它代表着前置条件(antecedents)、行为(behaviors)和后果(consequences)。前置条件是进行提前的设置,具体说,就是在你希望孩子做什么之前,先告诉他们。行为就是父母对行为进行定义、塑造和建模。后果就是当行为得到执行时,表达赞许,做出一种夸张的赞美,同时伴以表示赞同的肢体动作。

 

So instead of yelling at your kid every night for the shoes strewn across the floor, ask him in the morning if he can put his shoes away when he comes home. Make sure when you come home that you put your own shoes away. And if your child puts his shoes away, or even puts them closer to where they’re supposed to be, tell him that he did a great job and then hug him.

因此,不要每天晚上因为孩子把鞋到处乱丢对他大喊大叫,而是要在早上问他,能不能回家时把鞋子放好。确保你回家把自己的鞋子放好。如果你的孩子把鞋子放好了,乃至能把它们放在该放的地方附近,告诉他这样很好,然后拥抱他。

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