Effective Praise

Where to begin

The skill of Effective Praise can be a game changer in your family! Effective Praise focuses on praising your child for what they are doing right, no matter how small. Effective Praise can increase your child’s positive behaviors while decreasing negative behaviors. Effective Praise also builds confidence and creates greater family harmony.

Here is a list of things to do when learning the skill of Effective Praise.

1. Watch the Effective Praise skills video and become familiar with the steps.

2. Print out the steps of Effective Praise and place them somewhere you’ll see it for easy reference.

3. Visit the Fun Activities section and choose a game or activity that you think will be successful with your children as you implement the skill.

4. During a neutral time, use the steps of Effective Communication to talk about the skill of Effective Praise. Show the Effective Praise skills video and discuss how you are going to try to increase your praise and ask for their help.

5. Begin practicing using the skill of Effective Praise. Start with something small. It can be hard at the beginning to remember to praise. Don’t give up. Keep going! We promise it’s worth it!

Suggestions for parents when using this skill

Remain calm and beware of your limits.

Give yourself some slack. It’s going to take a while before praising becomes natural. Remember to praise yourself for the change you are making, even if it’s small!

Start small. Begin by praising those things that come easy/naturally and then move onto more difficult situations.

As you begin to praise your children more frequently, you’ll notice that using the skill has a trickle effect as your children will begin to use the skill too.

Download the steps of Effective Praise and hang it somewhere it is visible for easy reference.