WHAT AND WHY
Embedded Files
Creating goals is a great way to keep your child motivated at home. It keeps them thinking into the future, visualizing themselves meeting their goals, and then celebrating these moments.
Chunking tasks makes goals easier to achieve. Large assignments and projects can seem unattainable and daunting to some children, especially while working at home. It's difficult to stay engaged when the goal of completing the task is too challenging for a child.
You can break up assignments into smaller sections, and ask your child what their goal for the day might be. Visually taking apart assignments and sketching them out to show what it will look like when it is complete will also help.
Taking breaks after they reach these small goals so they can work on a passion project of their choice is also a great way to reward your child for meeting their goals. And creating a list of rewards for them to choose from so you can continuously reinforce their hard work is key.
STRATEGIES TO TRY
DAILY GOALS
DAILY GOALS
Have your child use these sheets to set daily goals for their brain, body, and heart. They can also create goals by subject, or for school, family, friends, and health.
WORK BACKWARDS (THE 4 C'S)
WORK BACKWARDS (THE 4 C'S)
4 C's.pdfWhat will they need to do to clean up/turn in their assignment? What will it look like when it's complete? What steps will they need to take to get it done? What do they need to collect to start?
PRO TIP: Print this out and have your child sketch and label their steps. Use this visual along with a weekly or monthly interactive calendar. Monthly calendar is shown below.
Interactive Calendar- Monthly..pdfUSING REWARDS AT HOME
USING REWARDS AT HOME
Use these visuals as a pre-made list of ideas that you can use as rewards. You can use them as ideas, or just print out and use it with your child(ren) at home.
PRO TIP: Have your child create their own Reward Jar or List. Be sure to agree on the items that they will be working for.
Children can work for small rewards throughout the day, or they can work towards earning a larger reward at the end of the day or week.
PHRASES TO USE
"What is your goal today in (subject)?"
"What is your goal today for (large project)?"
"Let's take apart this assignment and break it up into smaller parts. Where would you like to start?"
"How much time do you need to complete (task/activity)?"
"What do you need to do first? What do you need to do next? What do you need to do then? What do you need to do after that?"
"If you complete _______, then you can work on your passion project for 10 minutes."
"What are you going to work towards today?"
QUICK TIPS AND TRICKS FOR RE-ENGAGING YOUR CHILD
Visuals are a great way to re-engage your child. You can use pictures of the expected behavior or the tasks that your child needs to work on, and lay them out in front of them so they can refer back to them throughout the day.
You can take pictures of your child doing the task, print them out, and lay them in front of your child so that they understand what is expected of them.
Your child can also sketch and plan out their day with images of what they will be working on. Have them quickly sketch and label their day before they start working so that they are able to do a mental dress rehearsal of what their day will look like. This visualization will keep them transitioning from one task to the next, and will keep them on track throughout the day. Pictures of breaks, lunch, device use, etc. can also be sketched out before the day begins.
You can use phrases like:
"Check your personal clock."
"What is next on your daily sketch?"
"Check back in."
"Show me where you are in your day."
"Let's take pictures of the tasks that you need to do today and put them in order of when you're going to complete them."
PRO TIP: Attach these images and visual cues to a personal clock and chunk out the allotted time for each task. As the minute hand moves around the clock, your child will switch to the next task by checking their clock and transitioning from one thing to the next.
These images can be used as visual cues to trigger expected behaviors throughout the day.
You can print, laminate, and cut out these images. Then add velcro to the back of each of them and place them onto the First/Then visual, or onto your visual schedule.
PRO TIP: Take pictures of your child in action! When you take pictures of your child showing the expected behavior, it can serve as a great way to get them back on track and complete tasks each day.
Print, laminate, cut, and velcro each of these images and place them on the visual schedule or the First/Then visual.
Please contact your school counselor for more information and individual assistance.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse