Blanket training, also known as blanket time, is a method adapted from the methods encouraged in '' To Train Up a Child'', published in 1994 and written by

Christian fundamentalists Christian fundamentalism, also known as fundamental Christianity or fundamentalist Christianity, is a religious movement emphasizing biblical literalism. In its modern form, it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among British an ...

Michael and Debi Pearl. ''To Train Up a Child'' promotes several harsh parenting techniques, with a focus on child obedience, which have been linked to multiple child deaths. Blanket training is an allocated amount of time during the day where an infant or toddler is required to remain on a

blanket A blanket is a swath of soft cloth large enough either to cover or to enfold most of the user's body and thick enough to keep the body warm by trapping radiant body heat that otherwise would be lost through convection. Etymology The term ...

or play mat for a limited period of time, with a few selected toys. When the child moves to leave the blanket, parents are instructed to hit the child with a flexible ruler, glue stick, or another similar object. Many of those doing it have voiced online that they start by doing five minutes a day and build up the intervals over time, with some extending it to 30 minutes or more. Proponents of the technique claim that blanket training helps very young children to learn self-control, however, no

empirical evidence Empirical evidence for a proposition is evidence, i.e. what supports or counters this proposition, that is constituted by or accessible to sense experience or experimental procedure. Empirical evidence is of central importance to the sciences ...

currently exists to back these claims.

Critique

Critics of the technique cite the use of corporal punishment in conjunction with blanket training, which is not widely accepted by parenting experts, as being inherently ineffective in achieving parents’ long-term goals of decreasing aggressive and defiant behaviour in children or of promoting regulated and socially competent behaviour in children. Research suggests physical discipline by parents has been associated with heightened risk for harm to children’s mental health, as well as to their cognitive, behavioural, social, and

emotional development Social emotional development represents a specific domain of child development. It is a gradual, integrative process through which children acquire the capacity to understand, experience, express, and manage emotions and to develop meaningful relat ...

References

Parenting Training Infancy {{parenting-stub