How to Make Incentive Charts to Improve Behavior

Incentive charts can be a huge motivator for children of all ages. Does it feel like you're constantly yelling or lecturing your kids about their behavior? It's easy to get caught up in the discipline cycle. Breaking away from the yelling and creating positive reinforcement such as incentive charts may help restore peace in your home!

Things You'll Need

• cardboard
• markers
• stickers

Instructions

1. Set specific behaviors for the incentive charts to address. Choosing something general like "not being naughty" isn't a productive goal. Children may not understand what falls under the category of "not being naughty". Choose specific, measurable goals. An example could be hanging up your coat when you walk in the door or use manners. Think about the specific behaviors that are causing problems and address those issues first.

2. Determine the reward for achieving the goal. Also determine how many times the behavior must be repeated in order to receive the reward. This will guide how many placeholders are added to the incentive charts. Choose carefully so that the goal isn't too easy or too difficult to achieve.

3. Select a theme for the incentive charts. Does your child love trains? Make train themed incentive charts. If you selected 10 as your number before a reward is received, draw 10 train cars on the incentive chart. Each time your child does the desired behavior, color a train car or place a sticker on it. You can always do a traditional grid for your incentive charts, but customizing it to your child's interests may make it more motivating.

4. After creating the actual chart, introduce the idea of incentive charts to your child. Explain how it works and how she earns stickers. Let her know about the rewards and when she will receive them.

Tips & Warnings

• Address only a few behaviors at a time. For young children, only choose 1 behavior at a time. For older kids, you may be able to work on a few goals at a time.

• You may notice that even though you're only specifically addressing 1 or 2 behaviors with the incentive charts, there is a big overall improvement in behavior.

• Involving your child in setting the goals and choosing rewards may increase the effectiveness of your incentive charts.

• These incentive charts can also work as chore charts.

• If the goals are too easy to achieve, your child will be rewarded when he may not yet deserve it. If the goals are too difficult, he may get frustrated and not try at all. You can always adjust the number or stickers required for a reward or change the target goals in your incentive charts.