Ci3T At Home
Use Simple Strategies to Support Your Child at Home
There are several simple, practical, and effective strategies you can easily learn and use throughout the day. We would like to briefly introduce these four strategies:
Behavior-Specific Praise
Behavior-specific praise (BSP) is simply using words to acknowledge when your child is meeting expectations. For example, instead of saying “good job!” a parent might say, “thank you so much for putting your cellphone away during lunch time this afternoon” or “I appreciate you joining me for a walk after lunch.” This helps your child to understand exactly what was valued. Ideally BSP is delivered sincerely, right away (very soon after the behavior occurs), and often. Rather than praising things your child cannot control (e.g., being smart or pretty), focus on praising behaviors your child can control (e.g., effort). This very simple strategy works to increase on-task and other desirable behavior, and decreases undesirable behaviors (e.g., being disruptive or arguing).
Choice
Offering your child choices is another simple and effective way to not only support completing their academic tasks, chores, and other commitments (e.g., practicing a musical instrument), but also helps your child to build autonomy and other self determined behaviors. As the parent, you could offer choices for younger children, such as: “Would you like to brush your teeth first or take a bath first?” “Would you like to FaceTime Grandma before or after lunch?” “Would you like to listen to the story on the computer or would you like me to read it to you?” For older children, choices could include: “Would you prefer to make dinner tonight or tomorrow night?” “Would you like to work on your science or social studies activities first?” “Would you like to play Sequence or Monopoly for family game night?” Create 2 or more options. Then, ask your child to decide which one they prefer and be certain to honor their request. Choice is a proactive strategy that can be used before challenges arise. Incorporating choices has been effective in preventing problems from occurring.
Precorrection
Precorrection is another proactive strategy that is simple and takes very little time. Basically, once your expectations are decided, you simply remind your child what you are looking for from them. For younger children, you might precorrect by saying, “Just a reminder, when we are done eating, we are going to wipe off the kitchen counters to keep them clean and germ-free.” For older children, it would be the same: “Hey bud, just a reminder you can enjoy some screen time until 1 p.m., which is when your teacher will connect with your AP biology group on Zoom to review your assignment.” To support children with social distancing guidelines, you might use precorrection prior to going on a walk or other outdoor activity. For example, “Remember if you see a friend you can say hello but keep a safe distance away from each other.” When returning home from a public space you might use precorrection to remind children of the handwashing procedure when entering your home, “When we get inside the house the first stop is the bathroom to wash your hands.”
Active Supervision
Active supervision can be used in many different times of the day, when children are working on academic work, during leisure activities, and even during mealtimes. After expectations are taught and well-understood, parents or other adults move about, observe what is happening, and interact with their child. When the child is meeting expectations, the parent can provide acknowledgments using behavior specific praise to let their child know what was going well and provide private, respectful feedback or redirection when challenges arise. Active supervision works particularly well when used with precorrection. Remind them what you are looking for throughout the day, and then be on the lookout to notice and acknowledge!
There are several simple, practical, and effective strategies you can easily learn and use throughout the day. We would like to briefly introduce these four strategies:
Behavior-Specific Praise
Behavior-specific praise (BSP) is simply using words to acknowledge when your child is meeting expectations. For example, instead of saying “good job!” a parent might say, “thank you so much for putting your cellphone away during lunch time this afternoon” or “I appreciate you joining me for a walk after lunch.” This helps your child to understand exactly what was valued. Ideally BSP is delivered sincerely, right away (very soon after the behavior occurs), and often. Rather than praising things your child cannot control (e.g., being smart or pretty), focus on praising behaviors your child can control (e.g., effort). This very simple strategy works to increase on-task and other desirable behavior, and decreases undesirable behaviors (e.g., being disruptive or arguing).
Choice
Offering your child choices is another simple and effective way to not only support completing their academic tasks, chores, and other commitments (e.g., practicing a musical instrument), but also helps your child to build autonomy and other self determined behaviors. As the parent, you could offer choices for younger children, such as: “Would you like to brush your teeth first or take a bath first?” “Would you like to FaceTime Grandma before or after lunch?” “Would you like to listen to the story on the computer or would you like me to read it to you?” For older children, choices could include: “Would you prefer to make dinner tonight or tomorrow night?” “Would you like to work on your science or social studies activities first?” “Would you like to play Sequence or Monopoly for family game night?” Create 2 or more options. Then, ask your child to decide which one they prefer and be certain to honor their request. Choice is a proactive strategy that can be used before challenges arise. Incorporating choices has been effective in preventing problems from occurring.
Precorrection
Precorrection is another proactive strategy that is simple and takes very little time. Basically, once your expectations are decided, you simply remind your child what you are looking for from them. For younger children, you might precorrect by saying, “Just a reminder, when we are done eating, we are going to wipe off the kitchen counters to keep them clean and germ-free.” For older children, it would be the same: “Hey bud, just a reminder you can enjoy some screen time until 1 p.m., which is when your teacher will connect with your AP biology group on Zoom to review your assignment.” To support children with social distancing guidelines, you might use precorrection prior to going on a walk or other outdoor activity. For example, “Remember if you see a friend you can say hello but keep a safe distance away from each other.” When returning home from a public space you might use precorrection to remind children of the handwashing procedure when entering your home, “When we get inside the house the first stop is the bathroom to wash your hands.”
Active Supervision
Active supervision can be used in many different times of the day, when children are working on academic work, during leisure activities, and even during mealtimes. After expectations are taught and well-understood, parents or other adults move about, observe what is happening, and interact with their child. When the child is meeting expectations, the parent can provide acknowledgments using behavior specific praise to let their child know what was going well and provide private, respectful feedback or redirection when challenges arise. Active supervision works particularly well when used with precorrection. Remind them what you are looking for throughout the day, and then be on the lookout to notice and acknowledge!