Positive Reinforcement In Rewarding Children

Although by using positive reinforcement in rewarding children could be beneficial to the child’s growth, It also should be avoided in the long-term due to the negative consequences. When children are trying to learn something new, could be difficult to remember at first, or it could be that they are just not interested enough to want to learn. If children knew that in doing something their parents asked would get them candy they would try to complete the task in order for them to receive more rewards. When teaching most children how to read, for the first time, they seem to have a lack of interest, but when offering a piece of candy might motivate the child to want to read. “Do not use rewards unless you have to, use rewards for specific
reason and use them for a limited time” (Ash). Parents need to be careful when giving rewards to their children when learning, because after a period of time the child may become interested in only getting the candy. When teaching kids how to potty train, or to read a book, should you reward them afterwards? If children were rewarded after every time they read, they would start to focus more on the reward than the joy of reading. It would be the same if the child got good grades and the parent gave them money. The child would start to expect the money every time he would get good grades or when he did something he was supposed to. So when rewarding most children at a young age can be beneficial you should do it less and less as they get older.
“But not only does it tend not to last and not only does it understandably push for more rewards in the future but whatever commitment to the task or action they might have developed with you help is now even more scarce than it was to begin with” (Belkin). The children’s reward should be the good grades they have received and earned. They would learn and appreciate knowing they they did the work on their own and accomplished something without any rewards besides the reward of success. The children would get more out of the learning than they would if they were just doing it for the reward. As kids get older, they get less motivated to do the work when they know they are going to get the same treat every time. The children would start to think that is is not worth all the effort to get a reward they have gotten several times before. Parents should motivate their children by letting them recognize that in by doing well in school that they were awarded with good grades. By showing the child that you are proud of their good grades it could motivate them to want to continue. Every once in awhile parents could reward the child for continuing to do well in school by taking them somewhere
fun. If parents would change how they reward the children it might help keep them motivated, instead of rewarding the children with the same stuff so that way they would not become less motivated. If parents could keep their children motivated it could help them stay in school, and even motivated to go to college. Many students drop out of school every year because of lack of motivation. When motivation a child it could be beneficial for them in the future. So the child could motivate themselves by rewarding themselves with their accomplishments.