WHAT PARENTS CAN DO TO HELP CHILDREN CHANGE BEHAVIOR AND LEARN COOPERATION
- Teach cooperation by being cooperative and considerate yourself.
- Teach sharing as a social skill, say please and thank you.
- Model or demonstrate the exact behavior you want the child to do. Practice with the child.
- Help the child to rehearse the behaviors that you want.
- Plan ahead of time what you want to do when the child misbehaves.
- Tell the child; explain the plan.
- Listen and take turns listening and talking.
- Deliver encouragement continuously.
- “Catch” the child(ren) doing the right thing.
- “Attend” to child(ren) doing the right thing. Pay more attention to good behavior than bad behavior.
- Get help handling children who are out of control.
- Figure out what rewards are meaningful and valuable to each child and use them as positive consequences.
- Think ahead with your partner about the situation you want to change.
- Don’t threaten, nag, or criticize.
- Don’t yell, hit, or use force (when you do, you are teaching your child to do the same.)
- Remember punishment should only be that the child does not get what he wants when he doesn’t cooperate, or when he misbehaves. Make sure children do have consequences and do hear a lot of talking and have “meetings” when they get out of control.
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