Tips and Tricks for Getting Children to Collaborate with Positive Reinforcement

07 November, 2022

Although we would like to see our children help us with household chores naturally and without flinching, the reality is often quite different! Although the little ones are often happy to help us vacuum or empty the dishwasher, the older ones often lose their motivation when the task in question no longer represents a real challenge for them. Because intrinsic motivation is not always enough to convince children to actively and positively collaborate in accomplishing daily tasks , using a motivation system like the General Store is often a great ally! Here are some tips to ensure its effectiveness and its use to its full potential :

Offer attractive rewards

Make sure to include rewards and privileges in your General Store that will really please your children and that correspond to their needs and interests . Don't hesitate to ask them for their opinion about what they would like to find there; this way, you will ensure that they will want to get them thanks to the tokens they have accumulated! In need of inspiration? Find our list of suggestions here .

Set realistic expectations

For the motivation system to work, it is important that the child is able to experience success . Make sure to set realistic expectations based on the child's level of development and real skills. To help you establish the tasks that you can assign to children according to their age, do not hesitate to use our tapes provided for this purpose.

Working one challenge at a time

To keep your children from getting discouraged by the size of the task, make sure to give them only one new challenge to tackle at a time . Once a challenge is met and the child has successfully integrated the new task into their routine or no longer engages in the inappropriate behavior, set a new goal to achieve. For more tips on learning a new task in stages , check out our blog post on the topic.

For more tips on using a motivation system like the General Store at home and understanding its positive impact on family life , take a moment to explore our articles on the subject:

  • How to learn the meaning of effort thanks to the General Store
  • Learn about real life from the General Store
  • Learn to save with the General Store
  • Practical tips for knowing how long to reinforce good behavior
  • The General Store: Should we remove tokens?
  • 40 ideas for privileges for the General Store

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