Choices for Children by Alfie Kohn

Choices for Children

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Improving Children's Compliance- Part 2: Mastering the Alpha Command

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On my last blog post, “ Improving Children’s Compliance- Part 1: Kinds of Commands ,” we learned about the three most common kinds of commands: the initiating command, the terminating command, and the mixed command. With an initiating command , we start behavior; with the terminating command , we end behavior. The mixed command aims at, first, terminating the behavior that we do not want, and then start a new behavior, or initiate the specific behavior that we want. (To read this blog post in full, click on the link at the bottom.) Another way in which we can analyze commands is in terms of both their efficiency and compliance rate; most specifically, distinguishing between the beta command and the alpha command . Details of each kind of command follow. Forehand and McMahon developed a list of five beta commands , or commands with lower efficiency and reduced compliance, that is still relevant today (As presented on Walker and Walker, 1991): 1.       The Chain Command or gi
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What is Psycho-Education?

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In the broader sense, psycho-education refers to the education given to people who are living with emotional disturbances. The rationale behind a psycho-educational approach is that, with a clear understanding of the mental condition, and self-knowledge of own strengths, community resources, and coping skills, the individual is better equipped to deal with the problem and to contribute to his or her own emotional well-being. The core psycho-educational principle is education has a role in emotional and behavioral change . With an improved understanding of the causes and effects of the problem, psycho-education broadens the person’s perception and interpretation of the problem, and this refined view positively influences the individual’s emotions and behavior. Consequently, improved awareness of causes and effects leads to improved self-efficacy (the person believing that he is able to manage the situation), and improved self-efficacy leads to better self-control. In other words, the
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Helping the Unfocused Mind: Teaching Strategies for Students Having Difficulty Getting and Maintaining Attention

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As Levine (2002) states, attention is the brain’s manager, including a complicated network of controls that regulate most of the processes involved in learning and behavior. Levine, an authority in brain research and founder of "All Kinds of Minds", adds that attention does not accomplish anything on its own, but rather it helps the brain determine what to do, when, and for how long. Children who struggle paying attention in the classroom, also known as children with short attention span and/or inattentive students, frequently exhibit problem behaviors such as: •Distracted by background stimuli (irrelevant visual, auditory, and/or tactile stimuli) •Shifting from one uncompleted task to another task that is also left unfinished •Losing and/or misplacing the books and materials necessary for completing the task; forgetful •Do not pay attention to details, and due to this, they make careless mistakes •Do not seem to listen •Difficulty organizing tasks (what comes first, ne
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