“Punishing a kid by taking everything away leaves you with nothing” I posted this the other day on the BehaviorBandAid Facebook page and one comment raised an eyebrow: “What’s a good alternative to threatening to take something away?” I have also heard, “I have nothing else to take away! What...
When you were a kid, did you ever play the game, “HOT and COLD?” I am not sure what you called it, but you play by hiding a prize and your friend has to look for it based on your direction. As your friend gets...
Are there times when you think your child’s favorite word is, “NO?” Whether it is picking up socks, eating a few measly carrots at dinner, or going to bed, your kid is going to tell you “no.” So how should you handle that? Here are a few...
One of the most common classroom behavior management systems I see in elementary schools is the traffic light level system wherein students “on green” have shown good behavior and those with not-so-good behavior are either “on yellow” or have the dreaded “red day” if the...
A comment I frequently get when talking about rewarding behavior is, “won’t he just learn to expect some kind of reward for everything?” Another version of this is, “well, if I do that, then she won’t she always ask for something in return?” My answer? NO,...
Sometimes the most harm done with punishment is the fact we often punish the wrong behavior. As we all settled into our seats at the dining room table, we looked out the windows to see the nasty and dark Florida evening storm clouds that had popped...
Three Ways To Avoid "Behave or Else" Parenting Recently, I read Turn This Ship Around by L. David Marquet, a former commander of a nuclear submarine who turned one of the poorest operating submarines in the fleet into one of the highest performing in a variety of different...