I need behaviour mangement and reward ideas for children with SEAL problems

[mrsmaidamess]

As part of my new role at work, I am running a Nurture Group for children with Social emotional and behaviourial problems three afternoons a week.

The current incentive for the children to behave and follow our very simple rules is a sticker system.

If they are 'good' for 'every moment'and follow the rules they get a sticker for their chart. After 5 stickers they get to put their hand in a box of 'treasure' which has choc buttons, freddie frogs etc.

This is not my system I have inherited it. And I don't think it's working.

The children I have in the group are incapabale of behaving 'perfectly' for the whole session, that is why they are there in the first place. (The group is small, and our rules are such as 'kind hands, kind feet, kind mouth, take turns etc'.) The children still struggle with these.

So, clever MNetters, give me some practical ideas on how these children can succeed and get rewarded for behaving well and fulfilling our expectations.

I think you really need to know what works as a reward/incentive for the kids in the group - shouldn't necessarily be a one size fits all. and I def wouldn't be handing out choc as incentives! (Am teacher in SEN school, so know what I'm talking about btw)

how old are they?
stickers
pencils
pens
gel pens

or time on a pc/time to play a game/looking through a magazine/use interactive white board/water plants in staff room/have cup of tea/juice with friends at breaktime

maybe you could have a coupon of books that they choose from, so still could be a lucky dip that isn't immediate but redeemable later during the same am/pm/week

Thanks ramona, I do realise that the 'prizes' that worked with last years group do not work with this group.

They can be very self negating 'I don't care if I don't get any chocolate', or trying to ruin their sticker chart if they havent earnt one.

I like the voucher idea.

I was also thinking of splitting the session into smaller chunks and rewarding effort for smaller sessions rather than the whole thing.

OK. There are a number of issues here.

Firstly, you have to define, in positive terms, exactly what behaviour you require from the kids. E.g. if it is sitting still during carpet time activities, you might have a target of "To sit on you bottom, with you legs crossed, looking at the teacher and with your hands in your lap". For some kids, this will be too difficult for them to achiever, so for them you might just have "To sit on your bottom with your legs crossed" etc.

Secondly, you need to have a realistic time frame. For some kids it may be impossible to "be good" for longer than 5 mins, so you need to reflect that in your target. E.g. In the above target about sitting still, for a particularly restless child you might want to add "for 3 mins". In the begining of any program it is important that the child has a good chance of getting the reward on a regular basis. A 4 - 5 year old should get a reward at least every day, a 6 - 7 year old at least every couple of days and a 8 + might be ok if slightly less frequent. However, if you are dealing with children with lots of problems, it will be most effective if you can ensure they get lots of rewards early on. Later you can make the targets harder and so rewards are received less frequently.

Thirdly, children need to be involved in choosing their rewards. This makes it more motivating for them. Get them to draw up a list of possible rewards. Some could be tiny rewards (e.g. sticker, marbles in a jar, smiley face etc), some medium rewards (e.g. chocolate) that is got when child has earned, for example, 5 small rewards, and some big rewards (e.g. 20 mins choosing activity).

Fourthly, you need to think carefully how you are going to monitor this reward system. It will only work if you adhere to it religiously. Realistically you may need to focus only on particular areas of the day e.g. carpet time, play time, co=operative activities etc.

Fifthly, you need to think about how often you are going to reveiw the targets and rewards with the children. About once a week is necessary. If you don't actively involve kids in this, you will find it difficult to move away from "rewards for good behaviour" to "good behaviour for it's own sake", which is surely the ultimate aim.

FWIW, I think sticker charts are overused. If you do use the, you will have to think really, really hard about what you are doing to also move children towards behaving well without the use of tangible rewards.

Thanks neolara... I've emailed your points to myself at work so I can go through them with a FTC tomorrow.

Anyone else have any nuggets of wisdom?

To pick up on neolara's last point - how about being really radical and not using any rewards at all?

The part of your post that says,

"They can be very self negating 'I don't care if I don't get any chocolate', or trying to ruin their sticker chart if they havent earnt one." is quite telling I think.

At my school we have no reward system at all as we believe that children should do things for their own sake and for intrinsic motivation rather than for a reward. We also have no sanction system either. That doesn't mean we have no system to discipline just that we approach it in a different way. The reason we came to this system was because we had noticed at previous schools (ours is brand new) that the traditional approaches have failings and wanted to try something else. It is no quick fix however! If you are interested I am happy to say more, but won't bother with a long post if you're not!

Good luck either way

Sorry - haven't had time to read OP properly (I hate it when people say this!).

Have been involved in the launch of Waybuloo, which is on CBeebies - programme that supports SEAL.

From June there will also be a magazine, which will have reward charts to encourage/identify particular kinds of behaviours/emotions.

HTH - sorry to be so hasty.

I wondered if you'd find this thread too!

Mrsmaidamess - I'll talk to our nurture teacher this week and find out what she does.

sarararararah - I'd be interested to hear more of your school's approach.

I do literacy intervention with small groups in secondary - short sharp focused boosts - 3 hrs per week, for 3-4 weeks per group. I always run a chart to notice and record good behaviour (positive only) with small rewards at the end of the course.

Next year I may be doing some courses/classes for the entire year, so I'm gathering possible ideas of different approaches.

Roisin - just in case Sararararararh doesn't come back for a while, here is a thread where some of us discussed different methods of positive discipline

Yes I actually joined in on that thread as I was in the early stages of the Nurture Group.
Thanks for the reminder though!

This week I have implemented a new system of rewards for the group. We are so effusive in our noticing of small good behaviours the children exhibit, as they are a bit of a lively bunch. They each have told me what they think they could get a sticker for, and what they find difficult. We have to start with success!

The chocolate has stopped, instead, if we catch them being good they get a sticker (yes I know, but its hard to stop altogether!). 3 stickers for each session means a little certificate that says they have done well. Whover has the most certificates will get a dip in the surprise box, which will have pencils, rubbers, an invitation to invite a special friend,pocket money stuff in etc.

In an ideal world I would scrap the whole sticker thing altogether because I think they can become meaningless

Thanks. I have just read through the other thread. I work in secondary and would be delighted to have classes of children who by age 11 have developed intrinsic motivation through being at a school like yours.

However, they haven't! We are in a deprived area with some students from some desperate backgrounds.

I can kind-of see, I think, how it might work in primary. But in secondary the students are generally more rebellious and wanting to not conform. Also, as a teacher, you usually only have each student for 1, 2, or 3 hours a week so it takes longer to have an impact in some ways.

I wouldn't dream of rewarding children with behavioral problems with chocolate What about a small prize ie: trump cards, choice of activity etc (Haven't read whole thread so apologise if this has been said)

Roisin Yes I'm not sure how it would work if you were one of several teachers a child saw each week and the other teachers didn't do what you do. It works well for us because it is a whole school approach and we have regular InSET reminding us of the approach and working through things that have challenged us and we haven't quite known how to respond as well as rigorous training for new staff. You also need to foster a real sense of community which is harder I think with people who don't want to confirm. I don't think it would be impossible, just would require a very systematic approach.

Just so I'm sure I have said it, we don't not recognise good behaviour, we just avoid the, "Good boy, good girl," rather patronising stuff and just say, "oh, thanks xx for that, that was really helpful/thoughtful/caring/empathetic/independnet etc." and notice the effect the behaviour had - e.g. "When you were independent that meant I could do x" or "Thanks for looking after xx that made them feel much better". Rather than, "I really liked it when.." so there are natural consequences/rewards and they learn to look for them themselves.