In this manner, the child will begin to believe that he is being watched in a positive manner and will want to match all behaviors to this ideal. Moreover, child psychologists also warn against punishing bad habits. For instance, the child feels stressed and the child has to let go of the behavior that provides the comfort. The use of punishment encourages sneaking of the bad habit. The child has not learned a new constructive behavior in its place.
Punishment ends up hurting everyone, since noone feels at peace with the loss.
Parents discover that the child still engages in the behavior and the child feels shamed for needing to do it. Instead, behaviorists suggest that parents, teachers and the child work as allies in the habit breaking. However, rather than using these objects as rewards, the child should be given them at the start of each day. To illustrate, imagine that a child enjoys the sparkle of pennies or fancy looking pencils or buttons that when accrued can be turned in for a special movie viewing. Let us assume that the child bites nails at least 10 times during the day.