Behavior Tracking App (For Kids)
May 7, 2018 10:26 AM Subscribe
My wife and I are looking for an iOS app that will allow us to track behavior over time for our five (almost 6) year old, so that he can receive a reward after having "good behavior" for some period of time. We'd like something visually interesting, so that he is interested in it, and ideally it would be something where we could set the conditions (length of time, times per day, specific issues) it is tracking. Any suggestions?
For a 5 year old, go analog. Calendar page, stickers, stars.
posted by theora55 at 12:01 PM on May 7, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 12:01 PM on May 7, 2018 [10 favorites]
At that age, what worked for my kid was a homemade chart on the wall (low), with stickers he got to put on himself. This was a really easy visual representation for him: how many slots there were, how many slots were still open, etc.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:13 PM on May 7, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:13 PM on May 7, 2018 [4 favorites]
I'm not a parent but I have worked with a number of children, autistic and not through my background in behavioral analysis (Though, I am not a BCBA, so take what I say with a grain of salt).
Reinforcing good behavior is a great thing! You are already a step ahead of most parents for even considering this. However, I'd like to encourage you to take a few simple behavioral psychology tenets into consideration.
First, you want to deliver the reinforcement as quickly as possible after finishing the task. Let's say the task you are trying to reinforce is taking dishes to the dishwasher. As soon as they hit the dishwasher, ideally, you would be standing their with a candy, unwrapped, able to go into your child's mouth. Or, standing there with a sticker ready to give them. Or, with a 25c piece. Or, I suppose, with an app that makes a loud bell noise when you tap it. Or, I suppose, their favorite youtube video they haven't seen before somehow.
Second, as I've alluded to, there are many different reinforcers. One trick you can use is to let the child select their own, and go from there. After dinner, put out all the possibilities for reinforcement and ask which they want. "Do you want a sticker book, or a candy, or a youtube video?" from then on, you should use that reinforcer as described above. Make sure options are meaningful, desired, and valuable, not something they already have an endless supply of.
Last, if the above sounds too cumbersome for you to carry out, (IE, you'd like to just respond to the list each week) I would recommend making interacting with the list as fun and as enjoyable as possible. Go through it with them the first time, let them cross things off or check things, and give them praise and excitement each time they do a thing on the list. Make sure the tasks have a set start and end time, not "keep your bedroom clean", but "put dishes away after dinner" because those behaviors are cross-off-able. I don't recommend you limit reinforcement to once a week after review, because this will greatly diminish the effect of reinforcement and likely you will have to ask repeatedly for them to do their chores regardless of the reinforcement.
Hope this helps a bit!
posted by bbqturtle at 1:23 PM on May 7, 2018 [3 favorites]
Reinforcing good behavior is a great thing! You are already a step ahead of most parents for even considering this. However, I'd like to encourage you to take a few simple behavioral psychology tenets into consideration.
First, you want to deliver the reinforcement as quickly as possible after finishing the task. Let's say the task you are trying to reinforce is taking dishes to the dishwasher. As soon as they hit the dishwasher, ideally, you would be standing their with a candy, unwrapped, able to go into your child's mouth. Or, standing there with a sticker ready to give them. Or, with a 25c piece. Or, I suppose, with an app that makes a loud bell noise when you tap it. Or, I suppose, their favorite youtube video they haven't seen before somehow.
Second, as I've alluded to, there are many different reinforcers. One trick you can use is to let the child select their own, and go from there. After dinner, put out all the possibilities for reinforcement and ask which they want. "Do you want a sticker book, or a candy, or a youtube video?" from then on, you should use that reinforcer as described above. Make sure options are meaningful, desired, and valuable, not something they already have an endless supply of.
Last, if the above sounds too cumbersome for you to carry out, (IE, you'd like to just respond to the list each week) I would recommend making interacting with the list as fun and as enjoyable as possible. Go through it with them the first time, let them cross things off or check things, and give them praise and excitement each time they do a thing on the list. Make sure the tasks have a set start and end time, not "keep your bedroom clean", but "put dishes away after dinner" because those behaviors are cross-off-able. I don't recommend you limit reinforcement to once a week after review, because this will greatly diminish the effect of reinforcement and likely you will have to ask repeatedly for them to do their chores regardless of the reinforcement.
Hope this helps a bit!
posted by bbqturtle at 1:23 PM on May 7, 2018 [3 favorites]
ClassDojo is a free classroom management app that can be customized for any set of behaviors. You could definitely use it at home, though I agree that for younger kids, something that you can see more regularly (without having to access a screen) is easier.
posted by coppermoss at 1:39 PM on May 7, 2018
posted by coppermoss at 1:39 PM on May 7, 2018
Some Children's fitness trackers come with an app that connects to the parent phone. E.g. Vívofit jr. The app allows parent to set reward goals and then give the child a coin towards his or her reward whenever they please. I think they are called chores but you can name them whatever you want.
posted by leslievictoria at 1:45 PM on May 7, 2018
posted by leslievictoria at 1:45 PM on May 7, 2018
I was also thinking about Class Dojo. He would be a little monster avatar and you can totally change all the desired (or unwanted - you can both add and subtract points) behaviors and how many points they are worth. When you award a point, the app makes a happy chime. I use it in the classroom and it is... startling how much kids respond to that little chime.
I agree with the caveats above though about immediacy and accessibility, but you did ask for an iOS app, so.
posted by raspberrE at 2:10 PM on May 7, 2018
I agree with the caveats above though about immediacy and accessibility, but you did ask for an iOS app, so.
posted by raspberrE at 2:10 PM on May 7, 2018
Check out Smiles and Frowns. It's very visual, and the app developer is pretty responsive if you have questions about how something works.
posted by missmobtown at 10:11 PM on May 7, 2018
posted by missmobtown at 10:11 PM on May 7, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Mchelly at 11:24 AM on May 7, 2018