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Proactive Parenting

THE ABC's of Behaviour Change

As a parent, you are an important partner in creating positive changes for your child. To create these changes it is essential to develop your understanding of your child's behaviour and how this changes across different settings (e.g., home, classroom, and playground).

One way to understand your child's behaviour are the ABC's of Behaviour.

The ABC's stand for 
    Antecedents - the event that happens immediately before the behaviour occurs
    Behaviours - the behaviour that is a response to the antecedent
    Consequences - what happens as a result of the behaviour

When your child performs behaviour that you find unacceptable it might be helpful to answer the the following questions:

1) The behaviour that worries me is [describe the behaviour] because it [explain the reasons why]
2) The positive behaviour i would like them to perform instead is [describe the behaviour]
3) I will reward this behaviour by [describe how you plan to reward the behaviour]

You can also look for clues about what might be causing the behaviour by looking at the situational context (environment around the child at the time) and what might be causing the behaviour to continue by looking at your response to the problem behaviour by answering the following questions

1) Just before my child does the behaviour, they [identify what happened]
2) When my child does the behaviour, I do [describe your response] and they get [describe what the child gets]

In some cases you might be able to add a Contingency to help your child respond more appropriately to the commands they are given

Contingencies are proactive strategies that help to limit or redirect behaviours

Rewarding Positive Behaviour

Once your child learns to perform the preferred behaviour, we need to keep it happening. It is important that you praise correctly and effectively to reinforce positive behaviours.

Correct and Effective Praise USES:
    Voice
    Attention
    Affection
    Proximity
Correct and Effective Praise DOES NOT use:
    Back-handed compliments
    delayed praise

Commands and Limit Setting
    Only give your child a command if you intend to follow through with a consequence if the child does not comply
        Good Commands ARE:
            Made after eye contact has been established
            Made free from other distractions
            Remembered by the child
            Monitor the child for compliance
            Followed with immediate praise

        Good commands are NOT:
            
Presented as questions
            Given in a list

Tangiable Rewards
   
Some children do not respond to natural rewards such as (satisfaction, sense of achievement) as well as other children. These children need a reward they can see, touch, or hear. You may like to use token systems, behaviour charts, or immediate rewards

When starting a reward chart is important to do so with a positive tone: We are going to make sure that you get rewarded for all the good things that you do

Always
    
give praise for the positive behaviour as you give the token
Never
    Take tokens away for problematic behaviour