A curated collection of links to essays, articles and resources.
- COPA Blogs. Read a personal story about a childhood of corporal punishment and learning to parent differently, then read the follow-up, Taking Care of Our Old Folks – Even Those Who Have Hurt Us as Children.
- Justice for Children and Youth is a non-profit legal aid clinic that provides information about the legal rights of children and youth in Ontario and specializes in protecting their rights when in conflict with the legal system, education, social service or mental health systems. Explore frequently asked questions by children and youth on corporal punishment and spanking.
- Everything Matters: Beyond Meds. Decades of research show unequivocally that spanking has negative and long term impacts on children and their cognitive development and social behaviour. Read research studies that examine the effects of corporal punishment.
- The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children summarizes more than 250 research studies from around the world on the impact of corporal punishment and the adverse outcomes for children.
- The Relationship Blog. Discover ten important reasons not to hit your child by American psychotherapist Simcha Shtull.
- Spanking Has No Place in Canada, Period. André Picard of The Globe and Mail calls upon Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to honour his campaign promise to outlaw corporal punishment, one of the 94 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations.
- Spanking: Time to Get Rid of an Archaic Form of Discipline. A personal essay by Gary Mason of The Globe and Mail about why it’s time to outlaw the archaic mode of spanking to punish children.
- Alternatives to Smacking Children. A handy pamphlet from Australia on exploring the many alternatives to punishing children and self-care for parents.
- The Gender Research and Advocacy Project Legal Assistance Centre in Namibia has published creative comics to explore how two mothers (Comic 1) and two fathers (Comic 2) talk about and implement positive parenting with children and teens.
- 9 Reasons to Explore Positive Parenting. A clear and easy-to-read pamphlet from Jamaica’s Ministry of Education to review common misbehaviours of children and youth and how to approach them in a positive way. Additionally, explore seven simple and practical positive parenting methods.
- How to Discipline Your Child. The Region of Waterloo’s Public Health and Emergency Services shares ideas for positive parenting by setting limits with children with love, teaching them about self-control and ideas for self-care for parents and families.
- Positive Discipline. What is positive discipline and how and why it should be practiced are explored in this primer document published by the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children and Save the Children Sweden.
- The Best Start Resource Centre offers service providers what they need to deliver a workshop to a group of parents on the topic of child discipline. Additional resources geared directly for families are also presented.
- York Region shares positive parenting tips on specific challenges such as sibling rivalry, sharing, temper tantrums and childhood fears, as well as for babies and 1-2 year olds.
- Positive Parenting. Peel Children’s Aid shares positive parenting information for parents with infants, young children and older children in English, Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Polish, Punjabi, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Vietnamese and Urdu.
- Guiding Your Young Child with Positive Discipline. Information from Canadian pediatricians around what is healthy behavior at various developmental stages for children and how parents can support and encourage this.
- Disciplining Your Child without Spanking or Hurting Them. The City of Toronto’s Child and Family Health team shares concrete tips on positive parenting and why spanking does not work.