Using Incentives

A few students will require additional incentives in order to stay inside the boundaries you have created. A swift tap on the bottom of a two or three year old will prevent the need for further physical punishment as your child gets older. Why? Because your child understands that you are the absolute authority. By five or six, the additional incentive could be removal of a treasured toy or game for a day or going to bed early. By 7 or 8 years old, you must do whatever it takes to insure compliance. If the behavior is repeated, an additional or alternative incentive must be tried. All children are different. Children raised in the same family respond differently to incentives. The consequence that may work could be timeout, loss of TV, video games, playing with friends, to bed early, sitting on a bench during a game,  canceling a sleepover, or in some cases all of the above. All consequences must be administered in a calm, firm, and matter of fact manner.