How to Promote Good Behavior in Pre-school Age Children

If you want to prepare your child for pre-school, or just teach them o be more behaved try this method.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Poster board
• clear contact paper (you can usually find it with the shelf liners. Lamination will work as well.)
• Markers in your child's favorite color.
• Dry-erase markers, red, yellow, and green.
• Dry-erase eraser

1. Start by making your behavior board. On the poster board write at the top whatever you want to name it. E.g. Behavior chart. Then below that starting about six inches from the left and going across write out the days of the week starting with Sunday. Below that on the left hand side write your child's name, if you have more than one child write each ones name in their favorite color down the left hand side. Draw rows and columns separating each child's name and the days. After you have done this use the contact paper to laminate the board. Hang the board on a wall in your play room. If you don't have a playroom make sure you hang it where your child can see it.

2. Make sure if you use a baby-sitter that you explain this to them so that they will be able to do it when you are not there. The best way to begin doing this is by explaining it to your child in words that they will understand. Don't get too complicated or they will never be able to follow it. Each day you or your baby sitter will give your child a grade based on their behavior. The grades they can receive are green, yellow, and red.

3. Decide based on your own preferences how far your child can go before they go from green to yellow, and then yellow to red. For example if I have to tell my child to do something more than once, and I have to do this more than five times she gets a yellow. If she then talks back or hits her sister she will get a red.

4. Decide on your reward for being good, and your punishments for getting yellow or red. For example if my child gets yellow she can't listen to her CD player, if she gets red she has he same punishment but her favorite toy is also taken aw for the night. This works for us because her favorite thing to do is listen to her CD player. If she gets green all week she gets a dollar to go to the dollar store with, or she can save it to but something bigger. At the end of each day you, or you babysitter use the dry erase markers to give them a visual of what their grade is for that day. At the end of the week erase the grades and start over.

5. Don't feel like you are bribing your child to be good. This teaches them that when you behave good things happen, and when you are bad there are consequences. Eventually they will learn to behave without receiving a reward.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure when you are starting out that you give your child warnings of what behavior is about to make them receive a bad color so they can learn to modify this behavior.
• To keep everything together you may want to staple a ziploc bag onto your board to hold your markers and eraser.
• This may take awhile, and it will definitely take patience.
• Try not to yell, or over-react when disciplining your child, get on their level and explain why they are getting in trouble. They will receive the punishment better this way.