NPCER - Behavior chart?

[AJL]

Awhile back there was a post about how to manage 4.5-5 year old "attitude" and someone posted about creating a behavior chart. Can someone tell me more about it? What kinds of things did you put on the chart? How were positive behaviors rewarded?

My 4.5 year old is in a fine stage of bossiness, tantrums, and general punkiness. I could use a little help.

[racegrrl714]

I don't recall the original thread but I was on pinterest yesterday and saw a few examples of behavior charts on there under Everything: Kids. You may want to check it out.

[sldt]

We started a sticker chart 3 months ago for my almost 4yo. It has made a huge difference. Mine is just a Word table with different categories and 7 columns for all the days of the week. I have a picture for each "job" too (just clip art that relates to the task). We set a goal # each week and a prize (going to a specific park, library, something simple really). It really has made a huge difference in her behavior.

Her current "jobs" are:

Go to sleep by myself
No crying at bedtime
Don’t wake others up
Stay in bed all night
Stay dry all day
Brush without fussing
Eat dinner without fussing
Put my things away

I try to have at least one category that she gets a sticker on every day because it seems to keep her motivated. I'm about to switch out some because she's doing really well right now in all of them. When we started, she was really killing us with her sleeping habits so that's why there's so many sleep related ones!
HTH

[AJL]

Thanks, gals! Both tips are very helpful.

[cookiemdough]

Jun 25, 2012 12:59:50 GMT -5 sldt said:

We started a sticker chart 3 months ago for my almost 4yo. It has made a huge difference. Mine is just a Word table with different categories and 7 columns for all the days of the week. I have a picture for each "job" too (just clip art that relates to the task). We set a goal # each week and a prize (going to a specific park, library, something simple really). It really has made a huge difference in her behavior.

Her current "jobs" are:

Go to sleep by myself
No crying at bedtime
Don’t wake others up
Stay in bed all night
Stay dry all day
Brush without fussing
Eat dinner without fussing
Put my things away

I try to have at least one category that she gets a sticker on every day because it seems to keep her motivated. I'm about to switch out some because she's doing really well right now in all of them. When we started, she was really killing us with her sleeping habits so that's why there's so many sleep related ones!
HTH

We do something similar except ours is not on a weekly basis, just whenever he fills the blank chart with stickers he gets something special or we do something special. Tasks are similar:
Cleaning toys before bedtime, Going to bed without a fuss, Getting dressed in the morning without a fuss, etc.

We also have some for food because we are working on trying to get him to eat more foods. Basically once he is doing something well we take it off the list and add a different task.

[UMaineTeach]

when you make a behavior chart you think about what behavior you want to see more of and track it in conjunction with a reward.

phrase everything in the positive 'use kind word v. don't talk back'

I wouldn't do more than 3 behaviors at a time, as the behavior improves you can drop what has improved and add a new goal to the chart.
But you can be pretty broad with the 3 behaviors so that the cover everything:
1. following directions with no more than 2 prompts
2. using kind words and actions
3. more from one activity to another when asked (transitions)

you can track the behavior by event, by time, by frequency
so for by event was the behavior shown at wake-up, at breakfast, at morning play, at lunch...
by time - split the chart into half hour chunks and record if the behavior was met during the time period
by frequency - record every instance of the behavior being shown

then you can decide how you will reward - usually I require 80% compliance to earn the largest reward and make a scale of less reward for 70%, 60%, 50% and usually no reward for below 50% There can be more than one reward period per day if the child needs it to feel successful.

if you post more detail about what you want to do, I can help more

[AJL]

These are the three behaviors I'd like to see the most improvement in:

1. Stop crying every time he doesn't get his way. He throws a major dramatic tantrum every time we tell him he can't have/do something he wants. He knows that crying is OK when we're hurt, sad, tired, but I feel like he's using tears to get me to what he wants and I'll admit that I cave pretty easily because I hate the noise and the scene. I'm not helping him by doing that, I know.

2. Stay in bed until his clock says it's time to get up. He was doing great with his OK-to-wake clock until a few months ago. It's set to wake at 7 AM. He's usually up at 6 and in our bed. I'd like him to stay in his room and play quietly if he's not going to sleep until 7.

3. Put away his toys before bed without a fight. He will do it but it takes forever because he's negotiating and fighting with us the whole way.

I don't think I'm being unrealistic in these expectations but please let me know if I am. Can a sticker chart help with these things?

[UMaineTeach]

I think so
you might need 2 charts or get creative to make it work since you have 2 behaviors that occur only in the AM and PM and a 3rd that happens all day/anytime.
maybe a sticker chart (or calendar) that is Sun-Sat where a sticker is earned for
'I stayed in my room until my clock said get up' and 'I happily cleaned up my toys before bed before the timer rang' and then figure the reward based on 7 days.

then maybe a chart of half hour blocks from 7am to bedtime with the goal. I'm having trouble writing this goal. Some ideas that maybe you can re-word. I'm not thrilled with any of them.
'I used quiet words and safe hands and feet'
'I had a calm voice when I was disappointed'
'I calmly accepted when mom and dad said no'
'I followed mom and dad's directions'

How often he fails to meet the goal will determine the reward schedule for this goal. If he can go 3 hours without a melt down then do the reward every 2.5 hours. If he can only go 2 hours, then reward after every 1.5 hours. If he can go 6 hours without a melt down on most days then reward after 5.5 hours. He will need to feel successful for the reward to matter.

You could have a selection of toys that are only available at reward times to maintain incentive and make reward easy on you.
Then for 80-100% compliance he gets 5 minutes with the toy of his choice.
70% 4 minutes
60% 3 minutes
50% 2 minutes
<50% 0 minutes
you figure out before hand how many stickers between rewards equals each % then he can count his stickers before each reward time and look on the chart to see how many minutes 4 stickers equals.

if you want to go to overboard you can enter the daily data into excel and graph it to see improvement and when to change goals.

lots of communication with him while using the chart. Asking before he puts on the sticker if he thinks he ____ and then you elaborate with yes, you did do a nice job ___, you didn't cry when you couldn't go outside in the rain or hmmm, I remember when you screamed when you couldn't have ice cream, do you remember that?

[cookiemdough]

Jun 25, 2012 14:25:39 GMT -5 UMaineTeach said:

I think so
you might need 2 charts or get creative to make it work since you have 2 behaviors that occur only in the AM and PM and a 3rd that happens all day/anytime.
maybe a sticker chart (or calendar) that is Sun-Sat where a sticker is earned for
'I stayed in my room until my clock said get up' and 'I happily cleaned up my toys before bed before the timer rang' and then figure the reward based on 7 days.

then maybe a chart of half hour blocks from 7am to bedtime with the goal. I'm having trouble writing this goal. Some ideas that maybe you can re-word. I'm not thrilled with any of them.
'I used quiet words and safe hands and feet'
'I had a calm voice when I was disappointed'
'I calmly accepted when mom and dad said no'
'I followed mom and dad's directions'

How often he fails to meet the goal will determine the reward schedule for this goal. If he can go 3 hours without a melt down then do the reward every 2.5 hours. If he can only go 2 hours, then reward after every 1.5 hours. If he can go 6 hours without a melt down on most days then reward after 5.5 hours. He will need to feel successful for the reward to matter.

You could have a selection of toys that are only available at reward times to maintain incentive and make reward easy on you.
Then for 80-100% compliance he gets 5 minutes with the toy of his choice.
70% 4 minutes
60% 3 minutes
50% 2 minutes
<50% 0 minutes
you figure out before hand how many stickers between rewards equals each % then he can count his stickers before each reward time and look on the chart to see how many minutes 4 stickers equals.

if you want to go to overboard you can enter the daily data into excel and graph it to see improvement and when to change goals.

lots of communication with him while using the chart. Asking before he puts on the sticker if he thinks he ____ and then you elaborate with yes, you did do a nice job ___, you didn't cry when you couldn't go outside in the rain or hmmm, I remember when you screamed when you couldn't have ice cream, do you remember that?

While I recognize you are the professional here, that sounds really really complicated, lol.

[UMaineTeach]

Jun 25, 2012 14:38:38 GMT -5 cookiemdough said:

While I recognize you are the professional here, that sounds really really complicated, lol.

indeed it does.

I was thinking as I was tying it all out that it was impossible to follow.

Maybe just back it off. Do the AM/PM sticker chart and then a catch you being good blank page sticker chart that when it gets subjectively full he get something.

[ramble]
|-)
I wish I had a sample chart on this computer, it's makes things more clear to see the chart.

I tried to make one for her, but had to give up. It was like a lawyer giving legal advice over the internet with half the details. I was trying to practice behavior modification having never met the kid or the family or knowing the needs/schedule. [/ramble]

[sandipluschris]

We tried a couple of different things with our almost four year old and this is what we settled on -

We bought some poker chips (so, you know, if this doesn't work we can play poker). He has the opportunity to earn up to four poker chips a day. He gets one if he is good in the morning before we leave for daycare. Another if he is good at preschool/daycare and another if he is good when he gets home until bedtime. Lastly, he gets one if he eats all of his dinner.

We stopped most "free" treats and he must now use his poker chips for treats. Treats include a tv show after daycare, a chocolate milk when we go to the grocery store, an extra book at bedtime etc. He now has to use a chip for these things. In addition, he can save chips for extra special treats. For instance he really wanted to go to the movies so we told him it would be ten chips to go to the movies. He saved his chips and we went. He was very aware of how many he had and how many he needed.

This has totally helped to improve his behavior. He now is more easily redirected and he doesn't just expect every.damn.thing he sees. So far so good!!