Behavior Management: Praise and Encouragement – 91 Ways to Say âGood for Youâ This is a series of seven blogs to help teachers, parents and therapists bring students under instructional control so that teaching can occur. The components of the series are Behavior Management: An Overview Behavior Management: Bribes or Rewards – The Fundamental Question Behavior Management: Praise and Encouragement Behavior Management: Activities as Reinforcers Behavior Management: Point Systems Behavior Management: Behavior Contracts Behavior Management: Why it works The Importance of Praise and Encourgement Teachers, parents and coaches need a large repertoire of highly positive praise statements to reinforce their students, children and/or players efforts. These praise statements do not come naturally to most of us. Like everything else we have to learn to accentuate the positive. We need to practice saying good things to children. At first, our statements may sound contrived and insincere to us, but they may sound entirely different to the child. Children need and love attention. If you donât believe that just count the number of times in one hour that your child says your name. One of our major tasks as parents is to provide feedback to our children about their behavior. It is easy to criticize and to belittle a child. Punishment works faster than praise but it comes with a high price. It is much more difficult to hold back the criticism and âcatch the child being good.â Attention is a powerful reinforcer of childrenâs behavior, equally powerful whether it is positive or negative. The long-term effects of positive versus negative statements to children are dramatic. It is obvious that we need to focus on the positive, and eliminate the negative. It is also best for the kids. 91 Ways to Say âGood for Youâ Many parents do not have large praise repertoires. They need to increase the number of ways they can say âGood for youâ. Here is a list to memorize. Great Job Youâve got it. Youâre doing a good job. You are very good at that. Thatâs much better. Sensational Iâm happy to see you working like that. Now youâve figured it out. Thatâs the best youâve ever done. I knew you could do it. Great Keep working- youâre doing better. Perfect Thatâs right. You made that look easy Right on! Nice Going. Thatâs the way to do it. Thatâs better. Terrific! You did that well. Much Better You just mastered that. All right. Correct. I like the way you did that. Superb. Well Done Outstanding Thatâs a big gain Youâre really improving Now youâve got it. Keep it up. Tremendous! Best Yet. Good thinking Thatâs beautiful Wow! Keep on trying I like that. Iâm really proud of you. You figured it out. Thatâs Good. Thatâs even better Youâre the best. Excellent Good work Great try See how much better you are You did that very well Bingo! Congratulations Youâre a star Nice Good for you You are learning so much You are learning so fast Look at you! I knew you could do it Thatâs gotta feel good Youâre so smart. Dynomite!! Your almost there Show me that again Yippee! How does that feel? Take a bow Wonderful. Good remembering Look at that! Awesome Yes Iâm proud of your work. See what you have learned Nice going. Good paying attention You can do this See, I told you so You are Sooo smart. Marvelous Now thatâs perfect Wahoo! Look at you! You amaze me! Good working hard. Youâve been practicing. You are so much fun to teach. Got it! Points for you. Great score You make it look easy. Practice, Practice, Practice Take this list and put each praise statement on a flashcard. Read the flashcards once each day for 3-5 minutes. Â Then take a piece of paper and write as many praise statements as you can in one minute. You should be able to write between 20â30 words in one minute. When you have reached that standard, you will be fluent and now you have a larger praise repertoire. Now all you have to do is catch your children being good. Reward improvement. Ignore little deviations and wait for a chance to reward an appropriate behavior.
