Rewarding children for good behaviours, such as bedtime routines, toilet training, fussy eating and sharing toys can be an extremely successful way of reinforcing and increasing the frequency of such behaviours. Reward charts are a fantastic, visual mechanism of displaying when a child achieves them.  

Reward charts can work for all children. In my experience, they can be a brilliant way of focusing children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and or ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorders) on their positive behaviour. 

I was therefore delighted to try out the brilliant Big Red Bus Reward Chart by TotsUp Ltd, who have kindly sponsored this post. 

What can you reward? 

It’s good to be specific with rewards so that children (and you!) know exactly what they have to do in order to be rewarded. It’s also important to make sure everyone giving the rewards is consistent. 

There’s so much you can reward a child for. In fact any good behaviour that you would like your child to repeat, can be rewarded. 

These might include:

• Sharing toys. 
• Manners: Saying ‘Please’ and ‘Thankyou’.
• Eating healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables.
• Holding hands with parents when walking on the pavement or in a shop. 
• Tidying toys away before mealtimes. 
• Adhering to screen time limit/ turning the TV off when asked. 
• Trying to go to sleep by themselves/ not getting up too early. 

We’ve been using the Big Red Bus Reward Chart to reward our toddler for not getting up too early. Since we’ve started using it he’s been getting up later. Needless to say, the Big Red Bus Reward Chart is very loved in our house! 

You can also reward children for practising new skills in order to encourage them to try and develop it. In my opinion, it’s best to reward children for their efforts and not just their achievement of the skill, this reinforces the importance of trying their best. 

Skills you can encourage using reward charts may include potty training, practising riding their bike and trying at swimming lessons. 

Why Are Rewards Important?

 As well as the obvious benefit of children achieving the desired outcome e.g. being successfully potty trained, or a fan of broccoli at dinner time, using rewards has a whole range of benefits:

• Helps parents/ careers focus on and look for the positives rather than negatives. By having a reward chart it means you, as parents, are actively looking for the child to show you good behaviour, as opposed to being on the look out for them misbehaving. This often turns parenting techniques on their head, making it a more positive experience. This in itself can dramatically change a child’s behaviour for the better. 
• Makes changes in behaviour more manageable. Instead of being overwhelmed by a long list of behavioural issues to tackle, by choosing one behaviour at a time to change it becomes much more achievable. 
• Has a positive impact on your relationship with your child. By focusing on the positives your relationship with your child often becomes more positive aswell. 
• Makes it fun to behave/do as mum and dad say!  We found using the Big Bus Rewards Chart made our child find behaving and following our instructions enjoyable and good fun.

TotsUp Ltd are the creators of the Big Red Bus Reward Chart. A fun and stylish 3D reward Chart in the shape of a Bus. 

The chart comes complete with magnetic passengers and a 3D bus stop. Children place the magnetic passengers on the bus stop and each time they achieve their goal-they move a passenger onto the bus. Once ten passengers have been placed on the bus they gain their pre-agreed reward. 

There is also a fantastic IOS App of the reward chart so parents can reward children on the go. 

For more information about The Big Bus Rewards Chart visit their website here.