Page 86 - The Intentional Parent

get older give them chores. Reward them with praise. When you feel they are old enough make their chores part of their allowance. As long as you are working on rewarding something positive and specific, you will be on the right track.
Don’t make goals unattainable. Try to incentivize your C student into a B student before you demand A performance. Be realistic. If your incentive structure creates more frustration than success, that frustration will be the prevailing emotion and there is a very straight line that can be drawn between frustration and avoidance.
Sticker Charts and Contracts
Some parents draw up behavioral contracts with kids to memorialize everyone’s attempts at improving both the leadership structure and incentives. I am in strong favor of behavioral contracts, but only under the condition that parents have the ability to manage that contract. For contracts to work at helping change behavior they have to be a focal point for conversation and interaction. Contracts work best for kids from about eight through teens. Contracts do not have to be complicated and as a matter of fact, the simpler they are, the better they tend to work in my opinion.
Star or sticker charts work best for younger kids and are the younger version of behavioral contracts Appin that they lay out a goal or set of rules and stickers (often in the shape of gold stars) are given as intermediate rewards, and when enough are collected, they can be redeemed for whatever it is the contract states.
The Intentional Parent by Peter J. Favaro, Ph.D. 86