Tips for Using Charts with Children

Miss Mona’s

Tips for Using Charts with Children

Selecting tasks

When creating tasks for your child, it's important that they be small and observable with the eyes. This way, it is clear to both you and your child that the expectation has been met. The tasks are either done...or they aren't.

Samples of small, observable behaviors are:

Feed the dog.
Water the plants.
Bring in the mail.
Pick clothes up off the floor.
Help put groceries away.

Examples of tasks that are *inappropriate for these charts:

Be good.
Be nice to your sister.
Help parents.

Tasks like these take the power away from the child because suddenly the parent is the judge of whether this happened or not. Stick to things the child can feel a sense of accomplishment for.

Choosing an incentive

Choosing an incentive is just as important as choosing the behaviors for the chart. If the child doesn't like the incentive, there's no motivation. So work with your child to choose an appropriate incentive.

Here are some suggestions for summer time incentives:
Make frozen juice pops
Play in the sprinklers
Have a picnic lunch in the yard
Watermelon feast--with seed spitting contest
Dress up in adult clothes
Take a trip to the park
Fingerpainting
Use chalk on the driveway/sidewalk
Use bubbles in the yard.

Tip: Don’t use rewards from the charts as leverage or a consequence for not following some other family rules. If the child believes the reward earned for filling in the chart can be taken away, the power of the incentive chart will disappear and interest will fade away. If your child does something against the rules of your family, follow through with the consequences as you normally would -- and let your child keep the reward that he earned.

Happy charting!

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