Daily Tips for Families

Today's Tip for Families

10-15-2022

Predict, Prepare and Practice to Improve Behavior

No parent would wait until a child burned down the house to talk about the danger of playing with matches. Yet when it comes to problem behavior, some families wait until after the problem arises.

A better approach is to think about ways to prevent a problem in the first place. Think about a frequent behavior of your child's that you would like to change. Perhaps your child often gets up too late in the morning to catch the bus. This is predictable—it happens at least twice a week.

Since you can predict the behavior, you can also think about ways to prevent it. Instead of waiting until your child straggles down to breakfast, think of ways you both can prepare in advance to avoid the late start. Is your child tired in the morning after staying up too late reading at night? An earlier bedtime could change that. Is your student rushing around trying to get organized for school? Spending time packing up a backpack the night before could save precious minutes in the morning.

Then practice. Get out a stopwatch and see how quickly your child can get dressed and ready for school. If you predict, prepare, and practice, you can prevent many behavior problems.

Brought to you by:

Webster County Schools

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