Metateps

I like the book called ‘Smart Parenting, Smarter Kids’ which is written by Dr. Walsh. In that book, he makes a very strong case for praising children when they actually work hard and make an effort at chores, homework and so on. This fits in very well with the theory behind the child behavior checklist. He also makes the very valid point that instead of praising kids when they are clever, they should only get the reward or tick on the checklist when it has been well earned. If they get points or rewards for just being clever without making much effort at all, then this is not really what he calls smart parenting.

The original child behavior checklist was devised by Achebach and Edelbrock in 1981 and is highly regarded in child psychology. The version we have in mind is rather simpler behavior chart and can be used in the home environment and make parenting easier and more rewarding for all the parties involved.

There is a wide variety of free downloadable charts on the Internet. They range from general behavior to rather more specific ones.  The latter include targeting a very specific problem area or misbehavior. There may be a problem in trying new foods so the chart is ‘I tried a new food’ today. Others may target specific problems about toddler tantrums, sleeping in their own bed, answering back, not doing chores, frowning, sulking, spitting, biting, thumb sucking and wearing seat belts. The list is endless.

Some of the charts can be colored in as they go along and there are ones with sun, moon and stars which are filled and colored in for every good behavior achieved.

The whole idea of the child behavior checklist is to highlight and praise good behaviour which is always stated as a positive goal. There is also a reward that goes with achieving a certain number of points, for example not biting anybody for two days. Then rewards are posted and actually given as soon as possible after the winning of the prize.

The important thing is to start off the child behavior checklist with easy objectives for the specific behavior/s so that they can build on success. Then you can raise the bar and proceed from there. You can award prizes or treats every week on a specific day so that the whole week’s behavior is judged.  Also, the idea of actually creating the chart as you go along by coloring in and drawing something can be a lot of fun for the child.