Whether you are struggling with a headstrong child or simply not making as much headway as you would like in getting your child to behave, a reward system can be a great way to motivate him or her to make a habit of positive behaviours that you wish to encourage.

Reward systems provide an extra push on top of praise to reinforce good habits, and can also help your child to become more responsible for his or her behaviour. Such systems reward children with points, tokens or badges for demonstrating a desired behaviour, which they can then exchange for rewards such as snacks, time on their devices or even a trip to the shopping mall. 

However, many parents will be familiar with how children can prove to be quite cunning negotiators when it comes to rules, rewards and punishments, finding ways to turn the terms of any deal to their advantage. Here are a few key considerations to keep in mind when implementing a reward system that can work to both you and your child’s benefit.

For example, packing one’s bag every evening for school the next day is a good habit that is also straightforward to accomplish. For a little effort, your child gets the satisfaction of earning small rewards everyday, or a point or token towards a larger reward. 

A larger reward should also be achievable within five days. Children are much more likely to respond well to short-term rewards, compared to larger rewards that they have to wait a longer time for to claim.

Remember as well that it is far easier for a child to refuse to do something than to agree to do something. If you must get them to do something they find highly unpleasant, make sure the reward for each time they complete the behaviour is both significant and immediate, in addition to receiving a point or token.

If a reward is not meaningful enough, parents run the risk of the child deciding that adopting the new behaviour just isn’t worth the trouble. To continue encouraging the behaviour, you will then have to up the reward, which teaches your child the very opposite of what you are trying to achieve: that if they do not follow instructions and refuse to do something, they can get a better reward. For this reason, it’s better to start high when “negotiating” with your child, and slowly reduce the reward as the desired behaviour becomes more and more of a habit.

At the same time, the reward also needs to be feasible for parents. What this means is that, for a reward system to be sustainable, the reward should be something that you are willing and able to provide repeatedly over a short period. This is especially important for behaviours that your child will be engaging in multiple times over the course of a day. You will not be able to promise a new toy for each time your child 

The second case is more likely to occur with children, and again sends the wrong message that doing something inappropriate will result in a bribe being offered to encourage the child to stop. 

In other words, a bribe has the opposite effect of a reward. It incentivises bad or inappropriate behaviour and ends up increasing the frequency of such behaviour instead of decreasing it. So while a reward and bribe might have the same short-term effect of stopping an inappropriate behaviour, only a reward truly sets the stage for positive behaviour in the long run.

Each teacher goes above and beyond the call of duty, using their own unique techniques to keep their students entertained and engaged with learning.

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