Guiding Children Successfully Educational Guides
Program 1. Effective Motivation for Children
Urie Bronfenbrenner has said that “every child should spend
a substantial amount of time with somebody who’s crazy about him or her…
There has to be at least one person who has an irrational involvement with
that child, someone who thinks that kid is more important than other
people’s kids, someone who’s in love with him or her, and whom he or she
loves in return… You can’t pay a [person] to do what a [parent] will do for
free.”
1. Love motivates
Who have you known who has motivated you or others by their love and
caring? What can you learn from that person’s example about how you can
better motivate?
Have you sometimes tried to motivate children through criticism? Have you
found that it often backfires?
What success have you had in using love to motivate children?
What can you do to more effectively use love to motivate children?
2. Knowledge motivates
Each child has a different way of being motivated. Have you studied and
discovered what works with each child? Think of a specific child who is
especially challenging for you. See if you can discover that child’s unique
motivation system.
What can you do to more effectively use knowledge to motivate children?
3. Compassion motivates
Children often make mistakes or “misbehave” because they don’t know any
better. Can you think of examples from your own childhood when you made an
innocent mistake but were judged as bad?
Most of us react to children’s childishness with impatience and even
anger. What can you do to interrupt automatic judgments? What can you do to
better understand their world?
For background information and additional reading, see web units at
www.arfamilies.org .
Of particular relevance to this program are:
Understanding Your Child’s Uniqueness;
Understanding Circumstances and Children;
Empathy and Understanding Help Children; and
Sending Messages of Love to Children in Their Own Language.
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