WWB Training Kit #22
Acknowledging Children’s Positive
Behaviors
What Does it Mean to Acknowledge
Children’s Positive Behaviors?
As children are engaging in positive behaviors…
• Communicating verbally and non-verbally
with children (e.g., “I like the way you are
putting the toys away”).
• Presenting favorite objects (e.g., toys, books).
• Presenting pictures, sounds or other items.
Why Is It Important to Acknowledge
Children’s Positive Behaviors?
Because…
• Most child behavior is strengthened or weakened by
what happens after the behavior occurs.
• Adult attention often is captured by children’s
challenging behaviors.
• Attention from primary caregivers is so important to
young children that they will engage in behaviors to get
negative reactions.
• At times, children’s challenging behaviors can decrease
with negative adult responses (e.g., “Stop that!”), but
children are not always learning desired behaviors in
this process.
Why Is It Important to Acknowledge
Children’s Positive Behaviors?
• Acknowledging children’s positive behaviors has
been used to decrease many negative behaviors.
• Acknowledging children’s positive behaviors can
help increase and maintain:
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Positive interactions with peers
Following caregiver instructions
Appropriate communication
Independent self-care skills (e.g., dressing, toileting)
Activity 1
Pair-Think-Share
What Would You Do?
• Four-year-old Margaret often has difficulty
sharing dolls with more than one classmate in
dramatic play. One day Margaret and Sammy
were playing with the dolls. Another child, Oliva,
approached Margaret and Sammy and asked to
play with a doll. When Margaret said, “No!” Oliva
took one of the dolls, Margaret snatched the doll
back and the teacher, Ms. Brookes, said to
Margaret, “You know better than that. That
wasn’t nice!”
Planning for and Acknowledging
Children’s Positive Behaviors
• Give positive responses to children’s desired
behaviors and avoid responding when those
behaviors are not occurring
Planning for and Acknowledging
Children’s Positive Behaviors
• Remember that when withholding attention
for children’s challenging behaviors, children’s
negative behaviors may initially get worse
before getting better.
• By consistently withholding attention for
children’s challenging behaviors, you will see
initial improvement followed by some
variability (i.e., good days, bad days), followed
by more consistently good days.
Planning for and Acknowledging
Children’s Positive Behaviors
• Record the number of times that the child’s challenging behavior
occurs.
• Record what occurs before and after the behavior. Ask a colleague
to record the number of caregiver positive and negative responses
provided for the particular challenging behavior
What happens before the
challenging behavior?
What is the challenging
behavior?
What do the adults and
children do after the
challenging behavior?
Planning for and Acknowledging
Children’s Positive Behaviors
• Design a classroom plan to meet your
individual needs.
– Start with one desirable child behavior and one or
just a few children.
– Define the child behavior you would like to
increase
– Consider where, when, and how often to look for
that desired behavior.
– Think of situations that might increase the
likelihood that children engage in the desired
behavior.
Bringing it Together
• Think of a child in your program who could
benefit from more frequent acknowledgement of
positive behavior.
• How could you use acknowledgement of positive
behavior to support his/her positive behaviors
(i.e., what can you do or say)?
• What skill(s) does the child need to learn to
ensure success?
• What concerns do you have with this approach?
How could these concerns be addressed?
Pre-Training Survey
• What does “acknowledging children’s positive
behaviors” mean?
• What are the benefits of caregivers’
acknowledgement of children’s positive
behaviors?
• What are three important elements of
planning for and carrying out
acknowledgement of children’s positive
behaviors?