How to make a behaviour noticeboard for your children

When it comes to getting your children to behave it can often feel like you have tried everything. The most common tactics as a parent seem to be bribery, empty threats or discipline. However, it has been proven that positive attention from a parent, praise and rewards are what work best at getting a child to behave. Whatever behaviour you want to change in your child, it is possible with the right tools at your disposal. A behaviour noticeboard is a great way to acknowledge that your child is working on their behaviour and ensure that they are being rewarded adequately for making positive changes. But how do you go about making a behaviour noticeboard for your child? We take a look at the five simple steps and show you where to download some great behaviour chart templates.

Buy a quality noticeboard

All noticeboards are not the same. Your child’s behaviour noticeboard will be something that will be well used so it needs to be a quality product that will last. Once you have your noticeboard make sure that it is displayed in a central part of your home. The kitchen or living room can be a great area, as can a hallway. When your children start the day ensure that you show them the noticeboard and remind them of any positive behaviour that you expect from them. This can be a great chance to reflect on the previous day's behaviour and note down anything else that you want your child to work on. 

Use bright stickers and pens (wipe clean ones)

Children love bright colours and stickers are usually a hit with little ones. Use stickers to mark progress and you can involve your children with this part of the activity by allowing them to mark their own progress. A bright sticker can be a fantastic reward for compliance or you can allow them to work towards larger goals, in manageable chunks. You can pick up stickers from your children’s favourite cartoons or even movies. It is also possible to order personalised stickers online with your children’s names on them. 

You can help save yourself money on your behaviour noticeboard by using magnets with stickers on, which will be reusable, and using wipe clean pens. This will allow you to clean the board and change the contents as your needs change. Your behaviour noticeboard can grow through the years with your children. 

Have a section for each child

Make sure that each one of your children has their own area on the noticeboard. Ensuring that all children have positive behaviours that they are expected to carry out will keep things fair. If you have one child that is already well behaved, and one that isn’t, seeing one child progress along the behaviour noticeboard can be just the incentive that another child needs to work harder. Positive behaviour is often something that is learned from siblings, or parents, as well as other children so bear this in mind. 

Create a list of behaviours to change

You may only have one bad habit that you wish your child to change but think about this wisely when creating your behaviour noticeboard. A behaviour noticeboard can be used to work on a number of behaviours. Examples include bed making, folding washing, putting away their own clothes, behaving nicely, being kind to other siblings, being respectful to parents and much more. By ensuring that there is an overall goal, rather than just a goal for individual behaviours, you can help your child to work on improving themselves in general rather than focusing on changing just one aspect of themselves.

Provide short term goals

Ensure the goals that you set your child are realistic. For example, if you were to offer a treat for 7 consecutive days of good behaviour this may be setting your child up to fail. As soon as they had one day where they made a bad choice with their behaviour they would then not be incentivised to continue working harder for the rest of that week. Instead, you could try having a target for a set amount of good behaviour days per week or month. 

A behaviour noticeboard can be a fantastic way to encourage your children to work on improving their behaviour. As a younger person it can be hard to find the right ways to express yourself but with time most children can learn how to be well behaved. Remember that not all teaching styles and rewards are going to work for all children. You could offer your child a toy, a day out, a fancy lunch or even just some screen-time. Only you will know what is going to work best for your child and therefore a behaviour noticeboard is fantastic as it can be customised to suit your own children and the needs of your family. 

Ready to have your own child behaviour noticeboard? Take a look at some of these great downloadable templates HERE. 

By Chris Pinder