The most effective discipline begins with the parent understanding that discipline doesn´t equal punishment. I find it helpful if parents think of changing out the word discipline with the word leadership. And that helps them choose what kind of discipline they want to use. So a discipline mantra that I teach my clients is: Imitation, Redirection, and Habituation. So imitation meaning the child learns first and foremost from watching you, so behave the way you want them to behave. Redirection, if your four year old is toddling over to Aunt Bessy´s glass vase, you just gently take her by the shoulders and stear her away. You don´t explain to her why you can´t touch it and it´s precious. You just steer her away. And then habituation is the more that you engender this kind of right action and the more rhythm that you have in the life of a child, the more predictable routine, that child becomes habituated to right behavior. And discipline really ceases to become a big issue.