Attention: The Good & The Bad

Catching kids being bad is easy!  Catching kids being good is much tougher.

Though catching a child being good is where the money is!

Let’s try  changing our focus knowing that our children are motivated by attention.

Attention functioning as reinforcement can increase desired or “good” behavior if more attention is given for the “good” behaviors and less attention is given for the “bad” behaviors.

Tip:

1. Pledge to compliment or acknowledge one desired behavior per half hour

DO NOT comment on the less desired/ “bad” behaviors.

There’s No Use Reasoning With a Rock, or a Toddler!

Spend less time talking and more time acting.

Do not try to reason with a toddler. You’re better off reasoning with a rock.

Can you reason with HIS bad behavior?

To young children, words are just sounds coming from your mouth. They have no real substance to them yet.

If your child is behaving badly…

Actions, such by picking him up and carrying him to another location, provide a clear message.

Yelling from the other side of the room means nothing!

Get up off the couch, stop talking, and start doing!

TRY THESE TIPS:

1. Provide lots of supervision, distractions and re-directions – Minimize your words and maximize your actions.
Quietly take your child by the hand and lead him to where he needs to go.
Show him what he can do instead of what he can’t do.

2. Staying engaged the right way – Some actions may only make matters worse:
– slapping his hand, yelling “no-no,” and engaging in a stare down
ALL =
an invitation for a child to keep their entertaining adult engaged with them.

3. Offer choices – Having choices gives children a sense of power: They have the power to choose one possibility or another.

Try a method and let us know the result.

Protecting Your Goat! (Not the animal kind)

Let’s talk behavior, my favorite subject.

I spend much of my day observing and attempting to understand why someone may be “behaving” in a certain way.
Behavior can be overt – publicly observable OR covert – observable only to the person engaging in the behavior such as thinking.

As parents and teachers it is the observable behaviors that will get our attention and at time will get our “goat”.

Focus on why Suzie is behaving in a certain way rather than just how the behavior looks will help you determine how to respond.