Praise
Praise is a helpful parenting tool that involves looking for and recognizing positive child behaviors. Good praise makes the positive behavior more likely to occur again. This type of praise occurs right after the behavior, and is specific and genuine. For example, “Great work sharing the giraffe book with your brother; I know it’s one of your favorites!”

What should my therapist be doing?

• Partnering with you to increase the effectiveness of your praise for your child

• Teaching you all the various aspects of effective praise (e.g., labeled, contingent, proportionate) as well as how often it should be delivered

• Emphasizing that positive behaviors should be praised (e.g., playing quietly) and mild negative behaviors should be ignored (e.g., yelling while you are on the phone)

 What should I be doing?

• Engage in lots of practice for this new skill in session with your therapist and child

• Increase your use of praise with your child in everyday settings

• Practice, practice, practice

How will I know this is working?

• Your child engages in positive behaviors without you telling them to

• Your child engages in negative behaviors less often