Baby Einstein Blog

Now you know how to use effective praise to your child. Let’s then take note on the effective instructions as well, and fantastic incentives we could give our children.

When giving instructions, you should build direct eye contact, and you should be very specific. For instance, say, “Put your toys inside the box after you play.” Also, give young children only one instruction at a time. After following your instruction, you can add “Place the box inside your room.” Set time limits with each instruction too. You can say, “Put your toys inside the box before we have our supper.” In addition, you have to state the consequence of not following your instructions and follow through with the consequences if necessary.

There are a lot of creative ideas in giving terrific incentives to your children. You can have a family pillow fight, where the child can fully enjoy simple fun times like this. Or you can write a note to your child and put it in her school bag or lunch box, or stick it in her closet. Have a movie night at home, where you create fancy movie tickets and prepare special snacks. Your child can give play money to buy the tickets and food. How about going for a pajama drive? After your child has put on his/her pair of comfortable pjs, fasten your seat belts and go for a drive. Go by a drive-though for light snacks or ice cream, and drive around town. You can also use jelly beans or chocolate candies, raisins or other tiny treats as rewards for good behavior. Letting your child choose a game to play together is another fantastic incentive as well, as you are giving her the autonomy with your presence, in enjoyable situations like this. Speaking of autonomy, you can give a little freedom at bedtime to your child by letting him/her stay up 30 minutes later as an incentive for good job done, and to be able to spend more fun time with the child! (:

Parents have to know the basics about their child’s behavior and be able to respond and communicate effectively to such behavior. There are a lot of effective fundamentals regarding child behavior that every parent should know about, including effective praise, effective instructions and incentives. Let’s talk about the first one first: effective praise.

It is incredibly important to get your child’s level and make eye contact with him/her whenever possible. Eye contact is a vital communication for young children. Also, be instant and direct with your praise. As soon as the child displayed good behavior, give praise at once. Praise that is late and delayed is less effective. Another effective praise is being specific. Being precise with giving praise, like “You did a good job of keeping quiet inside the restaurant” is more effective than just saying “Good job” as it does little to reinforce positive behaviors.

Recognizing your child’s effort and not just the outcome when praising your child is also effective for children. Of course no child can be the best at all he does. Eventually your child will know your all-embracing praise as unrealistic. When you give praise, pair it with physical touch, like embracing or giving him/her high five. Be cautious not to criticize after you praise. It just defeats the praise you give. A statement like “You kept you room clean but I’d like it if you clean your room every time.” Such comment acts more of a complaint than a praise.

Take your praise a stride further and encouragingly identify your child’s self-concept. Couple your praise with a characteristic your child owns. For example, “I liked how you approached your new classmate and introduced yourself. You are a friendly person.” What’s more, keep in mind that you do not have to praise your child for all things, all the time. Find recent or previously unobserved behaviors. (:
 

Have you noticed in recent years that a number of our young children have gone overweight? The advent of fast food and video games among other factors has made our children obese and inactive. Consuming more calories than required is the apparent cause why we put on our physical load, but there are some other causal reasons to obesity.

Some of the causes of obesity in childhood can be attributed to not having a regular vigorous exercise. Children who also spend considerable time in front of the television for four or more hours everyday have a higher frequency of being obese than those who watch fewer than two hours per day. Furthermore, most diets of children nowadays are high in fat and sugar but low in fiber, fruits, and vegetables. Less than 25 percent of adolescents eat the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

There’s a genetic factor as well in childhood obesity. Hereditary predisposition in increasing weight is a predictor of childhood obesity, but a family environment of overeating and inactivity is the real reason of children gaining weight. If your family takes bikes or walks together after meals than watching television while eating meals, then your family may less likely to be overweight. It is also known that insufficient sleep may contribute to obesity because of the decrease in growth hormone secretion. So if your family always sleeps late and wakes up groggy the next day, not only it would lead to sluggishness, but also to obesity. If you also force your child to clean his plate, it may teach him to overeat. Allow him rather to get adequate food he can finish. Excessive nibbling on snacks may seem to be a role as well in children being obese. Even using food as a prize or punishment has been considered as a possible factor of overeating.

As parents, you have the task of teaching your children how to have healthy eating habits and a fit lifestyle. It’s pleasurable to have a family with children in shape and active, than overweight and inactive.