Page 14 - School Parent Session Academic Year 2025 2026 flipbook

The key issues with traditional ‘carrot & stick’ approaches

• Carrots and sticks can lose potency over time

• They are often transitory – only working when present or at the
forefront of the child’s mind

• They can be ineffective for young people with significant
unmet needs and missing skills (“It’s skill, not will!” Ablon, S)

• They can cause long-term dependence on external loci of control

• They don’t build a child’s internal locus of control

• They ‘manage’ rather than ‘educate’

• Some children can become dependent on adult support

• This limits development of skills and strategies

• It reduces self-efficacy, leading to helplessness

• Missing (Executive Function) skills are not the focus, so not built

• Unmet needs are not the key focus, so not addressed

• Progress is then not sustained

• Problems pop back up year after year.