In my spare time, I do occasionally read through Facebook posts that show up on my timeline. A friend (from years past) posted an article about the negative impact of parents using sticker charts to reward their children. My comment was brief.
With whatever you as a parent may use in a new behavior strategy, you must have a plan in place to remove it.”
My mistake was that I was commenting on a post of a mother of typical children. Her response was
“Hmmm, that’s an interesting term, ‘behavior strategy.’ I guess my strategy is just to treat to kids with respect and love.”
Now, I know this person. I am not going to infer that by her comment she meant that I do not treat my kid with respect and love. My parenting is purposeful or else my child with Autism can run off, get hurt, or worse. One example of a parenting strategy I have used in the past is rewarding my son with stickers.
Years ago, my son rejected food due to tactile issues.
This was especially difficult for me as I come from a family who owned Greek restaurants.
Food was quite important in my childhood. As a new mother, having a child who would not eat anything other than watered-down rice cereal was devastating and caused me much fear and anxiety. The main fear was that his overall health could be affected.
An Autism consultant offered a solution – a reward system with a visible chart to indicate when my son ate a new food item. The sticker charts were a success in encouraging my son to eat one new food item a week. This strategy took months; however, it worked for us. Currently we don’t use sticker charts for introducing foods and thankfully my son will eat most foods.
In my house, there are strategies and planning sessions to set and accomplish goals for my son. No apologies for my version of purposeful parenting.
