Preventive Teaching Resources
These resources, some created by Smarter Parenting, others from other organizations, will help you to practice and implement this skill with your child.
Feel free to rewatch the Preventive Teaching video as many times as you need to.
Supporting articles related to Preventive Teaching from the web
Prevention Strategies that Work from the Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice
Preventing Challenging Behavior in Children: Effective Practices from the University of Southern Florida
Connectability.Ca provides insight into role-playing and how it can be used to prepare for future situations. This article also highlights the power role-playing has in situations where bullying may occur.
Activities & Games
The following activities can be helpful in teaching the skill of Effective Communication.
Social stories
How to use this activity
Creating social stories is an effective way to help you and your children generalize their behaviors and allow you practice appropriate behaviors before situations escalate. In this example, Smarter Parent, explains how she created a social story to address tantrum behaviors with her children called, “Calm Body, Calm Voice.” The benefit of using this approach is that it allows parents to customize the stories to their situations.
Materials needed: paper, pen, photos, images
Bake a cake/cookies/brownies
How to use this activity
Children have a hard time seeing the impact their actions have. This activity is to help children understand the correlations by showing them the impact with something they can visualize.
Tell your children you are going to bake something good to eat. Pull out vinegar, peanut butter, and soap and ask your children if they’d like a cake made out of those ingredients. Tell them that to bake a cake you need to do something specific using specific ingredients. Liken this to Preventive Teaching by telling them their behavior is just like baking a cake. There are things they need to do to get the desired outcome, otherwise they’re making a cake with ingredients that won’t make a cake.
Materials needed:
- cake mix, ingredients for cake mix
- mixing bowl
- measuring spoons
- whisk
- pan
- 3-4 ingredients that you would not put into a cake
Ready to go further?
Sign up for the Smarter Parenting Club and gain access to additional resources, and most importantly, individualized coaching to assist you with effective communication with your child and much more.
Downloadable Resources and Worksheets
Related Articles & Podcasts
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How to make kids chore charts work
Parents often ask, “How to make chore charts work?” Before the age of technology parents often used chore charts on paper to help them monitor their child’s responsibilities and teach them responsibility. While I am a fan of technology, I always refer parents back to using a chore chart on paper. The main reason I recommend using kids chore charts on paper is that it visible for you and your child without resorting to a device. […]
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Testimonials
Parents and professionals explain their experiences with the skill of Preventive Teaching.
Professionals support the concept of Preventive Teaching.