20 Tips for Encouraging Good Behaviour | Sparklekidz

Promote positive behavior in your child with 20 expert tips. Learn how to encourage good habits and build strong relationships. Read now.

Are you looking to promote good behaviour in your children? Here are 20 simple tips and strategies that will help them develop better habits. Learn the importance of setting clear family rules, actively listening, and following up consistently with fair consequences! Struggling to get your kids to exhibit positive behaviour? Check out this list of helpful tips and effective strategies on how to teach your children good habits and bites.

Take time to actively listen

Actively listening means paying close attention to what your child is saying, both with their words and their body language. This lets you tune in to your child’s thoughts and feelings. And it shows your child that you care and are interested in them.

Set clear rules about behaviour

Family rules set clear expectations about behaviour. If you can, involve all family members in the discussions about rules. Try to keep the rules positive. For example, instead of saying ‘Don’t be disrespectful,’ you could say, ‘We treat each other with respect’.

Broken rules: follow up calmly, firmly and consistently

You can do this by using a brief and fair consequence that you and your child have agreed on in advance. It helps if you link the consequence to the broken rule – for example, ‘Because you didn’t come home at the agreed time, you’ll need to stay home this weekend’. This also helps you communicate your expectations about future behaviour.

Encourage self-reflection

If you need to use a consequence, it’s good to encourage your child to reflect on what they could do to stop the problem coming up again. For example, you could say something like, ‘Jem, I get worried when you stay out late without telling me what you’re doing. Next time, I’ll pick you up at 10 pm. What could you do differently next time so you don’t get a consequence?’ Follow up by asking your child what a fair consequence would be if it happens again.

Try to be a positive role model

Children – even teenagers – do as you do, so being a role model for your child is a powerful and positive way to guide your child’s behaviour. For example, when your child sees you following the family rules yourself, they get a powerful example.

Choose your battles

Before you get into conflict over your child’s behaviour, ask yourself, ‘Does this really matter?’ and ‘Is this really worth fighting about?’ Less negative feedback means fewer opportunities for conflict and bad feelings.

Take your child seriously

Your child is an individual and needs to know that they’re valued, accepted and respected for who they are. One way to do this is by taking your child’s developing ideas and opinions seriously, even if you don’t necessarily agree with them.

Give your child responsibility

Learning to handle responsibility is one of the biggest challenges of adolescence, and an important step towards becoming an adult. Giving your child responsibility in certain areas – like letting them choose their own clothes or hairstyle – can help increase autonomy and independence. It can also help you avoid battles over the little things.

Tackle problems in a positive way

Whether it’s an argument with your child or a disagreement with your partner, using positive problem-solving skills helps to keep you calm. It also gives your child a great example to follow.