Use of Behavior Modification Charts for Children

The basic instinct of every parent is to shout or punish the kids for their misbehavior. These may work initially but soon the kids immune to it. They tend to turn rebellious, conceal the truth by lying, take to bad habits etc. To avoid landing up in hot oven from frying up, it best to resort to more gentle approach such as rewarding the child for good behavior. A behavior chart should be set up and the child should be rewarding every time they meet the expectations.

What is Child Behavior Modification Chart ?

Behavior modification chart should contain list of behaviors expected of the children. This would help them to build their character and maintain good behavior. Parents should explain the kids about the expected behavior as per the chart and the reward pattern too. The chart should also contain list of undesirable behavior. The child should be rewarded generously every time they fulfill the desired behavior and lose a reward when fulfill the undesirable behavior. Thus soon the child will realize that more good behavior means more accolades and rewards and bad behavior only leads to losing them. Gradually, the child would make effort to maintain good behavior and win more rewards.

How to Get and Use ?

The free child behavior charts can be downloaded from the internet or parents can design their own ones based on their needs. Essentially it should contain an exhaustive list of the do’s on one side and list of don’t on the other side. This could be reviewed periodically and changed to suit the changed circumstances. For every good behavior the child rewarded with a positive point and for a bad behavior with a negative point. A bonus point could be given for exceptionally good behavior. At the end each day, the total point for good behavior and bad behavior should calculate. The child should be given a target  like if by the end of week if there were four 40 points then he/she would get to watch a movie, for 20 points a pizza etc. At the end of the week the total of good behaviour should calculated and child rewarded appropriately.

Different Charts for Child Age Group

The tasks listed in the chart should be appropriate to the age of the child and in manner that the child would be able to understand. A preschooler cannot read so the chart should have pictures instead of words in the list of behaviors. The desired behavior for toilet training could be a positive point for using the potty and negative point for not flushing the toilet.

Motivate Kids with Awards

It’s easy to lure the kids to do what is desired of them through rewards than through other means. This is a non forceful way yet assertive means of getting rid of bad behavior and developing good behavior in kids. The charts motivate the kids to adopt good behavior voluntarily and maintain it. The chart not only helps in changing the behavior but also cultivates the decision making ability by choosing between the right and wrong habits.  It develops good manners, etiquette and builds up feeling of compassion in the kid’s minds.

The chart would be successful only when the parents recognize and reward the child without a fuss for their good behaviour and don’t walk over their promise. Only this would motivate the child to do more good deeds and earn more points.

Thus the through the chart the child learns the consequences of good behavior and bad behaviors, take responsibility of his/her own action and cultivate good manners and behavior.