Behavior Plans & Contracts : Have you tried one? Results?

Calling All Parents, Teachers, & Professionals:

I need your help! I frequently encourage my client families to implement behavior plans to reinforce desired behaviors. Whether it's remembering to bring home assignment logs or remembering to wear glasses in class or getting out the door on time or getting homework done without whining; a good behavior plan developed by student and parent can make a HUGE difference.

While I have a professional / academic understanding of developing & implementing behavior plans / contracts, my most important resource has always been feedback from real-life parents who are actually going through this process.

Now, I have been asked to give a presention on Behavior Plans / Contracts, and I want to get feedback from parents who have tried this technique. So, if you have tried using a behavior plan / contract with your child (ren) , please comment below to let me know all about it : )

Specifically, I would love to know:

• age of child (ren)
• GOALS of your plan / contract
• IMPLEMENTATION tips -- what worked & what didn't
  
• RESULTS -- were you able to increase the desired behaviors / decrease undesirable behaviors
• RESOURCES -- how did you develop your plan / contract? People, Books, Websites, etc.
  

Thank you so much for taking the time to share with other parents, teachers, and professionals working w/ children!

CREATIVITY ( a.k.a. Divergent Thinking )

In the midst of seemingly endless bad news, I came across a truly inspiring story which provides the perfect example of why CREATIVITY (or DIVERGENT THINKING) is so very important -- especially when combined with strong EVALUATION and PROBLEM SOLVING skills -- Please CLICK & READ this great article: Inventor's 2020 vision: to help 1bn of the world's poorest see better Professor pioneers DIY adjustable glasses that do not need an optician Usually, when I tell people that one of the cognitive skill areas that I assess and train is ... CREATIVITY, there is some confusion. I have yet to meet a parent who was referred to me due to a child's difficultly with creativity, which is viewed by most as either art or creative writing. When I train creativity, my goal is to develop a child's (or adult's) ability to generate LOTS (fluency) of different (set change) unique (originality) IDEAS -- and to generate those ideas very QUICKLY (fluency). In simple terms, it's about quantity and speed -- not right or wrong! Creativity training is critical for students who "freeze up" when faced with academic tasks that they perceive as difficult. "Writers' Block" can impact ALL academic subjects -- even mathematics; not to mention those wonderful HIGH STAKES STANDARDIZED TESTS. Developing creativity / divergent thinking skills is the key to curing Perfectionist Paralysis! One very easy activity to develop creativity / divergent visual thinking is "the Scribble Game". Everyone gets out a blank sheet of paper and a pencil / crayon. One person says "start" and another says"stop". After "start", eyes are closed and papers scribbled on until the designated person says "stop". *Caution scribblers to remain ON the PAPER or protect the work surface ahead of time. After scribbling, papers are exchanged. Your job is to take another person's scribble and turn it into your own "work of art" using crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc. There are no right or wrong answers, and everyone gets to share their creations at the end of the activity. ADULTS must also participate : ) For writing, use photo prompts followed by brainstorming sessions. Encourage WILD & CRAZY ideas! Using a timer can reinforce the "need for speed", but the race should be for personal best -- not competition with others. Track progress -- it is motivating to see that you have doubled the number of ideas you can generate in "x" amount of time after a month of practice. INSPIRATION software can also be a great help to both kids and adults. Keri Smith's "Wreck This Journal" is a great tool for adults and older kids, and she has other books for younger kids, too. Julia Cameron's book, "The Artists Way" is a classic plan for enriching your creative life. Lastly, and hopefully you will find this example of No Holds Barred Divergent Thinking to be somewhat humorous & not too terribly offensive. I just found it extraordinary that, at a time when the news seems to be nothing less than apocalyptic (and getting worse) each day, a software developer made $40,000 in 2 days on a 99 CENT i-phone application called ... wait for it ... i-Fart. (You can click to read the details, and someone even took the time to write a detailed REVIEW). Those of us that work with children are probably not surprised by the love of all bodily function humor, but who knew it could be so lucrative??? Personally, I am hoping that MYstudents will be going forth to accomplish great works which benefit all of humanity -- like the inventor of the DIY eyeglasses!!! : ) Ultimately, it comes all comes back to that saying: "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" (which seems to be attributed to Albert Einstein & a lot of other people, too) The ability to quickly generate lots of different ideas means being able to think up lots of different ways to do things; and THAT means having lots of tools in your toolbox whenever you need them instead of being stuck FROZEN with FEAR when the old way doesn't work anymore. Of course, you also need EVALUATION skills in order to select the best of your many creative options AND Problem Solving skills in order to apply the best of those creative options; but I will leave discussions of Evaluation & Problem Solving skills for another day : )

PLEASE FORWARD & SHARE your great ideas, tips, tools, events, thoughts, etc. with me via: e-mail:  leah.daziens@gmail.com facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=603979437&ref=profile blog:  http://f-u-n-training.blogspot.com/ My Favorite Things:  Books, Games, & other Learning Stuff can be found at my Amazon aStore, http://astore.amazon.com/funtraicom-20 And lots of FREE Tips, Tools, & Resources are located at www.f-u-n-training.com