Positive Reinforcement Plans

I told you you might learn something! :) I thought a great blog post to start it off right would be our positive reinforcement plans here at home. As you know shaping little brains is hard work. Children respond so well to positive reinforcement. (So much better then negative!) Now, truth be told I yell too. But it's really not effective. That is more for my personal satisfaction of believing that I am in charge since I can scream louder. (Which by the way...I am not in charge, and mostly can't scream louder.) So instead I am the Sticker Master...

We have an entire wall dedicated to this process. (plus extras in spaces i'll show later...) First you must set rules! These rules are the House rules. And are followed by everyone. (Yes, even the sticker master) ...

They are basic rules that allow everyone to feel safe and loved in the house. And are not excluding of anyone. These rules require and demand immediate action here if they are broken. Time outs in his room are what Brother Baer gets for breaking them. Everytime, consitently. Little Baer is redirected and told the proper way to act. (He's a little young for punishment) And then baby Baer and Goldilocks thankfully aren't in the applying rule stage.

Remember....too many rules and you muddy the water. If your always correcting you not enjoying. So pick a few and stick with them till they are mastered. Then you can move on. Now we move to praise! And praise here is in the form of stickers...with rewards...




Each completed Task is rewarded with a sticker. If the task isn't complete, there's no yelling or screaming...there are reminders...but then there is no sticker *muhahahaha* So...the little monster complies for a taste of the sticker....for the reward at the end of the rainbow...

Mostly each reward level is granted about every other day. Which works nicely. It also works nicely that Brother Baer has no concept of money and a Matchbox car is an awesome present on private mommy time (Note to self: Change that to $2.00 toy next time around...I would go broke) Everything for the charts were purchased at the dollar tree. I spent $13.00 on EVERYTHING and have enough stickers to last for months and months. I change the wall monthly though to ensure that boredom doesn't set in.

Then we have some fun learning things on the wall. Brother Baer works with Little Baer to teach him his ABC's and numbers. We can also use the number chart for math and the ABC chart for speech and spelling.

So that's our wall of praise! We also have 3 other tools that we use here. One is a feeling monitor. How are you feeling....on a scale of green (happy and awesome) to Red (MAD MAD MAD) and then we process those feelings as they occur. Yes you must be a therapist too. A degree would be helpful, but you can wing it like I do. Chances are they will need therapy when they grow up anyways. LOL (Don't we ALL?) And then you won't have to pay for it.

Then there's the "I rock jar!" This is a fast moving fun thing...catch them doing something good...and point it out, and drop some rocks in their jar. (I use glass pretty rocks from the dollar tree!) This is filled usually daily. If not twice a day. And the reward is immediate, and something fun...fruit snacks is Brother Baers favorite.

And the last thing we have is our goal chart...It's a GREAT day to.... And have them fill in the blank. What can we do today? Be nice, make a friend, play outside, soak up the sun! Whatever they feel is a good goal for the day. this is posted right beside our front door. So it's the last thing we do before leaving for the bus!