Great tool
This is the best behavior management app for parents and children that I have seen. Ive been using behavior management with my children for years, using the Barclay model with the help of a professional psychologist. I bought this app to update and refresh the token economy weve had running in our family- I found that as our children grew older the poker chips we were using were becoming a little stale. This app refreshed things nicely, and everyone is excited about rewards again, even though our payout rates have remained the same. I think my children like the sophistication of the electronic interface compared to the jars they used before, and the happy/sad sounds the app makes when good/poor stars are awarded. The portability is probably my favorite feature.
The only problem I found with the app is that is seems geared more for an end of day accounting, as opposed to more immediate feedback. Each task/responsibility can earn at most 1 star per day. This works great for items such as "Homework", but since I use behavior management more for things like "co-operating with your sister" I need to be able to award stars immediately (making the reinforcement more effective), and multiple times each day. For example, I want to award a star when my son co-operates with his sister on the walk to school, when they clear the lunch dishes together, and when they play together after school. Awarding one star for "co-operation" generally at the end of the day is too diffuse, and doesnt allow me to pin point specific positive and negative choices throughout the day, when they are actually being made.
This wasnt difficult to work around- I just made multiple task entries for the same task: co-operating 1, co-operating 2, co-operating 3 . . . Its not exactly elegant, but it does the trick. The only downside to this is it makes it harder for me to show the progress the children are making in a specific area. Where I can quickly see the total for "Homework" and provide appropriate praise (Great job, you did your homework every day this week!"), I have to then mentally tabulate the sum of the different co-operation items to get the total score (Wow! Youve earned 24 co-operation stars this week! Have you noticed that you and your sister seem happier and are having more fun together?")
All in all, though, this is a very a small inconvenience. I find that overall, with this app, my efforts with my children are more potent at shaping specific positive behaviors, and the overall supervision effort required of me is decreased, compared to our previous program.
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iRewardChart: Chore Tracker