Reward charts - pro and cons

[Bumperliouzzzzzz]

We were having a bit of a discussion at work about reward charts (we have bulletin boards a bit like mumsnet but I have to remind myself to be more restrained!) and were discussing reward charts. We haven't used them so far, but DD is only 2.11. I'm not sure if I agree with them or not, though I am not sure why. What are the pros and cons of them and what sort of behaviour/age do they work on?

This is one of those purees/blw topics i'm off to get the popcorn....

I had a reward chart for DD1 when she went through a phase of getting out of bed and howling a lot at night for no good reason.

The second the chart was full and she had her reward she stopped sleeping well, went back to her old ways and suggested "maybe I need another sticker chart."

She was not yet three at the time.

Therefore I think they are excellent for training adults.

I used to have one until I realised how riduclous they are! I mean, I was giving a sticker to my child if they put their shoes away....!! Come on! There are some things children just HAVE to do, they don't need a reward for it.

My friend pointed out to me that we are probably the only European country that use them.

There is some well proven theory that giving shildren extrinsic rewards can make them view a particular behaviour as undesirable and therefore can have the opposite effect to the one you want. Child thinks " If I have to be rewarded for doing that it must be difficult/unpleasant therefore I won't choose to do it"

I also know someone whose child turned it round on her and began saying he would only do things if he got a sticker on the chart first!

I think they can be useful to help motivate a child to break long term habits but with some provisos:

You don't give a sticker every time a child does a particular thing.

You choose random good behaviour and try to surprise them with a sticker.

The child never gets a sticker if the ask for one. They should always to what you ask because that is what is expected of them.

You never say "If you do this you can have a sticker".

You never take away a sticker which has been earned. Negative behaviour now does not make earlier good behaviour less valid.

There is no time deadline so the child begins earning the next goal immediately the previous one was achieved. Otherwise they may give up for the rest of the day/week/month.

They can be successful but they have a lotof pitfalls.

Thanks for the posts, interesting points. I actually have a back ground in psychology so they behavioural side does appeal to me, but somehow they seem a bit contrived, how do you move on from sticker charts. I'm not sure if I would use them, I just wanted some opinions really.

I introduced one for my DTs about a year ago when they were 5, probably a bit older than most people are talking about.

We were having escalating behaviour problems and we were going down the route of punishing the behaviour with bans (ie no DS today, no TV today). It didn't improve their behaviour at all and it was hard to enforce some things on just one child without being unfair to the other (ie no TV).

The sticker chart rewards good behaviour for specific tasks (ie getting ready for school, getting ready for bed etc). As they are older there is a much more sophisticated sequence of events (ie, mealtimes include loading dirty dishes in dishwasher, helping to lay the table etc).

My DH is a sceptic saying they only do things to get the sticker not because they want to which is probably true. But if the DTs put their uniform on without me resorting to wailing like a banshee at them it can only be a good thing.

It worked well in some areas for us but we still have some issues with behaviour out and about which I'm not sure how to tackle.

I'm not sure how to really move on from them though.

I got one for my DD a few weeks ago because I thought it might help get us out of a bit of a spiral of tantrums she was going through.

It was a total disaster initially - just one more thing to tantrum about. Then she just wanted all the "party cake" stickers. She didn't understand it really and now we just don't bother with it.

She was way too young (2.1) but I thought some people did stickers at this age and she loves stickers.

I do think though that the few days where we were using them got us out of a pattern of tantrums and me getting frustrated and we've been having a much better time together recently.

I don't get the idea of sticker charts at all. Surely, children have to be polite and helpful because that's the way to behave and not to get a star on a chart and a treat.

IMHO it sends a wrong message: if you behave in a acceptable manner, then you get rewarded for it. Eh? No, putting dirty socks in the laundry basket, helping with setting the table, doing your homework etc are just a bare minimum of what I expect ds to do. We do fun stuff when/if the occasion presents itself ie movie he wants to see comes out or go to the cool kids park if weather's nice etc, but not as a reward.
I also find that giving them stuff to do that's just a tiny bit more 'difficult' makes them feel really proud of themselves and more 'adult' ie I asked ds to go to the shop round the corner to get some onions(for the first time ever). When he came back, he was v.nonchalant about it, but I could see he was really pleased with himself.

Hi,
Personally I am not a huge fan of sticker charts for 2 reaons:

1. I forget to fill the bloody things in.
2. The children I have worked with all have some behavioural issues and they just have not taken to them, they prefer specific praise and a comment in the home school book.