CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — When a child throws a tantrum, we sometimes give them a device, such as a smart phone or tablet, to calm them down-- but this could encourage bad behaviors in the future, according to a new study.
Dr. Gregg Silverman said distracting children with a screen instead of sitting them down and helping talk through their behavioral issues can be detrimental to future emotional regulation.
"Well, first of all you're giving them something, you're rewarding bad behavior," Silverman said. "It's not really telling the child how to help with their emotional instabilities rather than what they're doing, it's taking their emotional instabilities and rewarding that behavior. It's not a great way to teach kids how to do that."
When it comes to breaking the habit, Dr. Silverman says it can be a difficult thing to accomplish.
"Sometimes, you could even just leave them alone and they work their way out of that situation, and figure out their own methods of responding to whatever it is that is causing them to have problems," said Silverman.
Changing behavior of children takes time and dedication and it's not a problem with one solution.
"I know it's very hard, by having been a parent, it is very hard at some points for the child to be out of control, but at some point it's time that you kind of get that child of that situation and they'll work their way out of it rather than just hand them whatever it is you're handing them," Silverman said.