What is Conscious Discipline?

Created by Dr. Becky Bailey, an internationally renowned expert in child developmental psychology, Conscious Discipline® is built on the premise of developing discipline within children rather than applying discipline to them. The Conscious Discipline process applies equally to parents, childcare givers, educators, and patient caregivers. It can be pictured as a pyramid with four stages:

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• Understand the brain states (the base of the pyramid)
  Discover how to use the latest brain research to break out of the instinctive habit of disciplining children the same way you were disciplined as a child. 
  You’ll also be able to help children progress from physical or verbal aggression to calm self-regulation, freeing them to make better choices and empathize with others.
   

• Learn your seven powers as adults 
  Among these powers is your ability to see discipline as an opportunity to teach rather than a disruption... and to stay in control of your own actions, creating a safe environment for your children. 
  Consider: an adult who is out of control is perceived by a child as a threat to his or her safety. As part of this stage, you’ll learn how to self-regulate your own emotions and actions.
   

• Discover new ways to connect members of your family, classroom, or team
  Building stronger connections in your family, classroom, or team will increase their willingness to solve problems together rather than fight against each other.  Many parents and teachers are delighted to find that attention seeking behaviors in children are automatically reduced at this stage, which isn’t surprising since most people crave connection more than attention.
   

• Use the seven skills of discipline to respond to events in new ways
  If you’ve ever struggled to keep a child focused on an idea or task, you’ll be delighted to find that changing your own responses can help children boost their learning skills.  Your new ways of responding will also help children develop kindness and self-respect, honor those different than themselves, solve problems with compassion, and grow into responsible adults.
   

The Conscious Discipline program has been named a national model for character education by the Florida State Legislature. It has also been proven to reduce aggression by 64% while increasing reading scores by 18%; in fact, Conscious Discipline classrooms score significantly higher in statewide reading comprehension, writing, and math tests.

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If you could make things better, would you?