09/01/2025
Positive reinforcement / redirection is a vital strategy for improving behaviour. The word “no” is all too often used as a precursor to the undesired behaviour we don’t want to see. Most children and young people switch off when mentally when they hear that word. It’s overused and often ineffective for managing behaviour.
Redirecting behaviour using more positive language which instead focuses on the actions we want to see, or rather the desired behaviour. For example below is one clients goal for the fortnight - you can clearly see that instead of phrasing the goal negatively with “no fighting” we’ve instead replaced it with “be kind to each other” and then unpacked what that actually looks like, in terms of the actions I can take. Naturally - if you’re being kind you’re not going to be hurting another or using hurtful language. The key is to focus on the actions we want to see - always remaining positive in our language - instead of focussing on what we don’t want to see (stop this, no (that!)
Language is powerful when used more effectively.
