Make sure to praise your child when they are following directions

Our last post was focused on behaviors that occur to get attention and what they may look like for your child. Attention maintained behaviors, like most other behaviors, can be prevented in some cases. Although these strategies may not work for every child, they are a good starting point for addressing the behaviors you are seeing at home.

One way that these can be prevented is to stay close to your child. This can be as simple as sitting next to them while they color or work on homework. If they are looking to get attention, having you near may be enough to keep their unwanted behaviors to a minimum. This can also help with the second strategy to prevent these behaviors, which is telling them when they are doing a good job.

Praising your child can also help stop unwanted attention seeking behaviors. If you are near your child, you can watch what they are doing and praise him or her when they are following directions and doing what they are expected to. For example, if they are quietly reading in their chair you can give them behavior specific praise and say, “You’re doing a great job reading!” This shows them they can get attention for doing what they are supposed to and lowers the chance that they will start to cry or yell to get attention.

Check back next week to find out the Husky ABA Clinic’s techniques for stopping the behaviors if these preventative strategies don’t work!