How to Motivate Children

How to Motivate Children

by Alan Pritchard on May 31, 2009

I was visiting a friend's house recently and was intrigued by a handmade poster on the kitchen door. It was drawn in brightly coloured wax crayons and had two columns. On the left hand side the column was titled "Good" and had a big smiley face next to it.

On the right side the column was titled "Not Good" and this had a big frowning face next to it. I studied the poster for a while and I quickly realised that the poster was being used as a reward and recognition system for my friend's four-year-old daughter.

I chatted with my friends and asked them about how they used it with Leah and was very interested to hear what they had to say. Every time that Leah did something good, her parents rewarded her by writing down what she had done well and putting a big smiley face next to it. They did this with her and then praised her for it and made a big fuss out of the positive. This made her feel really good and apparently the pleasure on her face at her...Read More >>