A time-out involves temporarily separating a child from an environment where inappropriate behavior has occurred, and is intended to remove positive reinforcement of the behavior. It is an educational and parenting technique recommended by some pediatricians and developmental psychologists as an effective form of child discipline. Often a corner (hence the common term corner time) or a similar space where the child is to stand or sit during time-outs is designated.

Timeouts are often known as the naughty chair or naughty step, a term popularized by Jo Frost of Supernanny^{[citation needed]}.

The concept of time-out was invented, named, and used by Arthur Staats in his extended work with his daughter (and later son), and was part of a long-term program of behavioral analysis beginning in 1958 that treated various aspects of child development. He introduced various elements that later composed foundations for applied behavior analysis and behavior therapy (the token reward system was another invention). Montrose Wolf, a graduate student assistant of Staats on several studies dealing with reading learning in preschoolers (see, for example, Staats, A.W.; Staats, C.K.; Schultz, R.E.; Wolf, M.M. "The conditioning of textual responses using 'extrinsic' reinforcers."), used that background when he went to the University of Washington where he began his creative program of research. Wolf first used Staats' time-out procedure in a 1964 published study dealing with the behavioral treatment of a child.

Parenting (or child rearing) is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the aspects of raising a child aside from the biological relationship.

Parenting is usually done by the biological parents of the child in question, although governments and society take a role as well. In many cases, orphaned or abandoned children receive parental care from non-parent blood relations. Others may be adopted, raised in foster care, or placed in an orphanage.

Social class, wealth, and income have the strongest impact on what methods of child rearing are used by parents. Lack of money is found to be the defining factor in the style of child rearing that is chosen. As times change so does the way parents parent their children. It becomes essential to understand parenting styles as well as how those styles contribute to the behavior and development of children.

Developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind identified three main parenting styles in early child development: authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. These parenting styles were later expanded to four, including an uninvolved style. These four styles of parenting involve combinations of acceptance and responsiveness on the one hand and demand and control on the other.

Jane Nelsen, Ed.D., is a licensed marriage, family and child counselor in South Jordan, Utah and San Clemente, CA. She is the author or coauthor of many books on child discipline, and has also developed training workshops to complement her ideas. Jane holds a doctorate degree in Educational Psychology from the University of San Francisco in 1979, but considers this secondary to the education and experience she has achieved from her successes and failures as a mother of seven children. She now shares her experience through speeches and workshops around the United States.

Jane has been very well received by school districts, teachers' organizations, conferences, and parent education networks throughout the world. She has appeared on Oprah, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Twin Cities Live, and was the featured parent expert on the National Parent Quiz with Ben Vereen.

Books

Workshops