Or, suppose you broke your arm and were crying in pain. We tend to look at the problems we see in others and try to fix what we see. While this often has good intentions as the motivation, it usually ends up being either ineffective or produces results which complicate the problem. When you deal only with the external behavior, the underlying cause of the behavior will produce the behavior again. You will need to take the necessary time to speak with your child not only about what happened by why it happened.
Every behavior has a root cause.
Try your best to find it and then address your discipline to the root. The goal of your discipline is to discipline the heart, not the behavior. Remember how long it took you to learn some of life's important lessons. If the behavior is rooted in immaturity, take the time to discuss the character deficiencies you see, teach your child the character qualities you value and reinforce them repeatedly in word and in your example. Fear can mask many types of behavior, and if the behavior is corrected without the root being identified, additional hurt can result in the child, leading to more inappropriate behavior and an increased separation between parent and child.