Our Reward Charts

My children have their moments, but they are generally well behaved.

Obviously with ASD children there is going to be some difficult behaviour, but it doesn't really help to punish them as they can find it difficult to make the connection between the punishment and the thing they have done wrong.

We have found this particularly true with Neil, you could tell him off for doing something wrong, and he would go and do it minutes later with no thought for the previous discipline.

I'd actually never considered using reward charts before, I have always told my kids what they were doing right and praised them verbally, but that's as far as it went. It was only when Neil came home from school one day absolutely buzzing that he'd received a stamp on his chart, and exclaimed that he was only 1 away from getting a prize. I've never seen him come home from school in such a good mood.
I asked him & his sister if they would like me to get them a reward chart from home, and was met with two very excited cried of YES.

 Now like I said, my children are pretty well behaved anyway, but it can be difficult to get them to pick up their toys when they are finished, and I try to encourage them to be kind to each other and help mummy with little tasks around the home. I'm no slave driver by any means, but I want to teach my kids the value of pitching in as a family. I also wanted to use the reward chart to help neil learn acceptable behaviours, and to reward good night time routines.

We had a look on ebay, but people were charging close to a fiver for something we could print out and laminate ourselves.

We didn't need to put much thought in to the design. As I'm sure anyone who's even glaned at my blog will know, my wee man is obsessed with Minecraft. Caitlin loves My Little Pony, so that was that sorted.

It was just a case of finding a good image for the background, and putting a grid over the top using paintshop.

Caitlin's My Little Pony reward chart

Neil's Minecraft Creeper reward chart

We decided on nine spaces for reward 'stamps', and when the tenth good thing is done a reward is given.

Instead of making a mark on the chart with a dry wipe pen, we created little characters which we laminated. We then put a small piece of blu-tac on the back of the characters, meaning each time I rewarded the kids they could go and place their little character on the chart themselves. They really enjoyed this touch.


The finished product turned out great, and the kids love them.

Both Neil and Caitlin have responded well to using the charts, both of them are starting to learn what is expected of them to receive a reward. It's also become, dare I say it, a bribe when they are misbehaving.
"If you do that again I'll remove a reward from your chart" can often be heard in my house, and it usually stops them in their tracks.

I'd really recommend having a go at making your own charts if you haven't already, it's pretty simple and much cheaper than buying one, it allows for the chart to be whatever their favourite thing is at the time and you can easily get the kids involved by helping them choose pictures and even getting them to colour it in or decorate with glitter before laminating! We had lots of fun with it, and so long as we're consistent with the rewards, we really do find the children trying their best around the home!