Positive, Immediate and Certain (PIC) is a way to use behavior based performance management in helping children understand:
- What do you want them to do
- How do you want them to do it
- How are they doing
- What is in it for them
Just like adults, children want to know the rules. Without rules, we are just hoping they get it.
Children will gauge their efforts to change their behavior based on their expectations of what is in it for them. That is why it is so important to provide those reinforcers. They want recognition and rewards. That is why some of you will role out the 10-20-30GO! program in your house and actually have (some) kids that are excited to get started. The rules are now clearly defined and they now know how to win. AND understand they can get recognition for doing so.
The best consequences are the POSITIVE, IMMEDIATE, and CERTAIN (PIC’s). Using the 10-20-30GO! system gives you many opportunities to PIC your child. Each day the child is supposed to bring you their card to get a signature for praying, reading and chores. You are not having to initiate the situation and when your child brings you the card, you now have an opportunity to encourage/congratulate them for what they have accomplished that day. These are low level PIC’s but none the less, it is Positive when you tell them “nice job”. Immediate when they bring it to you right after they have exemplified the desired behavior. And last, it is Certain because they know exactly why you are congratulating them. High level PIC’s are when you sit down with the child at the end of the week and give them their reward. Make sure it is a good enough PIC that they will want to repeat 🙂
Families that are finding many ways to PIC their children, create a positive environment in the family. In turn, the children are more likely to continue the desired behavior. Get creative on different ways you can reward and reinforce the positive behavior in your children. Allowance is always a good reinforcer but does not have to be the only reward.
We would love to hear what you are doing in your house!
We will be talking about Negative, Immediate, and Certain next week.
102030GO! 