4 ways to teach children good behaviour using positive reinforcement

November 3, 2015

Teaching children how to behave can be a challenge, and many people believe in different methods of educating children about how to act. If you hope to educate your child about maintaining good behaviour, check out these effective ideas for using positive reinforcement.

4 ways to teach children good behaviour using positive reinforcement

1. Offer tangible rewards

  • Children are often motivated by things that they want like toys or fun experiences, so a good way to teach children good behaviour is by rewarding them with desired objects when they behave well. You can create a star chart with good behaviours including saying
  • "please" and "thank you" and sharing on it. Kids receive a star sticker on the chart when they do something positive and receive a tangible reward when they earn a set number of stickers.

2. Use praise

  • Use lots of vocal and verbal praise to reward your child when he does something good, even if he doesn't realize he has accomplished a behavioural goal.
  • For example, if you see your child playing quietly by himself or bringing a toy to his sibling, you should go over to him and tell him how proud you are of him and how great he is behaving.
  • This praise will remind kids that their good behaviours are praise-worthy and encourage them to look for more behaviours to earn more praise from parents.

3. Set up situations for positive reinforcement

  • You can't always catch your child behaving well, so if you want to teach them about positive reinforcement, you can set up situations in which you know you'll be able to use it.
  • For example, give them a simple task to complete like drying dishes or putting all of their toys away in the toy box. When they're done, offer them lots of praise or rewards.
  • You can also give them a timed assignment like building a castle with blocks or drawing a picture.
  • When the timer goes off, praise them for getting their work done. This allows them to see that finishing goals and following through is worthy of being rewarded.

4. Compare past and present behaviour

  • To keep children learning about how to behave, compare their present behaviour with the way they used to do things.
  • For example, if he decides to share with friends or siblings on his own rather than sharing when he is told to do so, say," Last time your brother had to ask you to share, and this time you did it all on your own!"
  • Reminding kids of how they've grown will encourage them to listen to the lessons you tell them and continue to improve their behaviour.
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