The poll of 1,000 nursery workers also found three in five nurseries disagree with the 'naughty step' or 'thinking chair' as a method of controlling a child's bad behaviour.
Carmena Christian Day Nursery says negative words can have a lasting impact on a child's self-esteem. Deputy manager Kerisha Brady told Premier positive words provide a more constructive way to communicate healthy boundaries.
She said: "If you keep telling the child they are naughty every day, they're going to start behaving naughty because they're going to explore the words that you're using.
"Discipline worded negatively is much harder for a child to understand, if you say to a child 'stop it', what are you saying stop it from, so it's better to use words like 'that's not very nice' or 'that doesn't make me feel very well.'"
Ms Brady believes the banning of negative words reflects how the Bible teaches us to live.
She said: "Words can bring life and death, as we know from Proverbs.
"It is very important that what we say to children is giving life to them and upholding the standards of the word as we are taught."
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