Rewarding your child for good behaviour is an essential part of bonding with your child. If your child’s actions are reinforced by positive reactions from you, your child will react positively to rewards and will continue their good behaviour. You can offer your child with social rewards or material rewards and also you can use verbal rewards to let your child know about the good behaviour and most importantly your approval. There are a number of ways you can reward your child and it is important that while rewarding you mix all of them appropriately so that the rewards do not become predictable by nature. Remember that if you are giving same reward (especially material rewards) every time, then your child might become manipulative and will try to trick you.

7 Ways to Reward Your kids

Affection as Reward: You can use affection as reward to show your child that you approve of his/her behaviour. Hugs and kisses, high-fives and pat on the back or even a big smile help the cause. Rewarding your child with affection will make your child understand that you appreciate his/her action and also it will encourage your child to display affection in public. He/she will be less shy in social gatherings and will help you establish a strong bond with your little one.

Spending Extra Quality Time: Reward can be given in the form of spending some extra quality time with your child. Apart from the regular time you already spend, you can call him/her in the kitchen thereby allowing your little one to help you make some cookies or decorate the cake. This time of rewards will most definitely make your child more attached to you and also it will instil certain degree of confidence in your child.

Taking Your Child Out for a Special Activity: As a reward to the good behaviour, you can take your child for a walk in the park or take him/her out for a movie. Sometimes allowing him/her to do the favourite activity or allowing him/her to spend more time with friends can also considered as good rewarding strategy. Suppose if your child enjoys painting, you can reward him/her by allowing one extra hour or taking your child to an exhibition.

Making Your Child Choose the Meals: Offering your child with his/her favourite meal can be a good reward. However, a better rewarding tactics is to give him/her the opportunity to choose a meal. It could be his/her favourite homemade spaghetti and meatballs or a special takeout menu, giving your child the opportunity to choose the meal will make him/her feel more important and valued. By making your child a part in the decision making process you will ensure that your child also becomes responsible.

Giving Your Child Useful Stuff: Material rewards can also be offered but you should focus on giving him/her with useful things like school supplies (pens, pencils, erasers etc), storybooks, hobby-books etc. You can get him/her involved in painting or stamp collecting and reward him/her with stuff associated with the hobby. This will make your child more associated with extra-circulars and he/she will also learn to continue good behaviour in order to fetch more useful things.

Give Your Child Allowance: Rewarding your Child with allowance is a good idea once your child becomes 5 or 6 years old. At that age your child will get more aware of his/her wants and needs. Giving small allowances is also considered as a good way to teach your child about managing finances. However, while giving allowances, you should remember that you should always start with small amounts like $1 and increase it gradually as your child grows up. Giving your child with more allowances at the beginning will eventually increase his/her expectation and will eventually become disappointed if you can’t maintain the rate.

Praise Verbally: Verbal parsing is also very important form of reward and so you must choose your words cautiously. Instead of just saying “Good Boy/Girl” or “Well Done!” you can say, “ I really liked the painting you did last Saturday, or “ You scored a great goal today at the games”. This kind of rewards will open gates of communication for your child and also at the same time it will make your child feel that you actually noticed his/her work and you also care.

Rewarding your child is an essential element in the mix of things that ensures that your child is behaving properly. You can use a Reward Chart will help you track your little one’s behaviour and each time you give reward you can update the chart with a smiley face or a star.