Behavior Training Handout   Frank Barnhill M.D.
 

Here’s how the program is supposed to work:

• Select a token, such as red, white, and blue poker chips and assign a value to each, just as if they were coins. Do not use coins, as kids can use them, even when they haven’t tried to change their behavior.
  
   
• Using black paint, label white chips with 1’s, red chips with 5’s and blue chips with 10’s. Of course you can choose and color and give tokens any value you wish. I’ve been told kids tend to respond better to higher numbers. These numbers represent the value of each chip just coins.
  
   
• Pick an out of the home activity that your child enjoys frequently and assign a number value to the activity. For example, if your son likes to roller skate at a local rink, or play rented video games, give those activities a value of 50 points each. If your daughter likes to watch rented videotapes or talk on the phone, give those activities a value of 50 points also. Explain to your kids that they can receive tokens for acceptable and normal desirable behavior, and agree on how many points a certain behavior is worth.

Activity		Points
picking up all toys after playing		2
emptying the trash		2
cleaning up his bedroom		5
helping keep the house clean		10

Any behavior that you wish to help your kids improve can be given points.

Explain to your child that every time he is “caught doing a good behavior” you will give him tokens to save toward getting a reward.

You may also allow the child to report her good behavior, show her efforts, and receive her tokens.

Agree on how the tokens are to be “cashed in.”  For example with Tony, he loves to play video games rented from Blockbuster Video.

Usually, his parents took him there on Fridays after school and let him pick a new game to play over the weekend.  Now he has to accumulate 50 points in order to rent a game on Friday.  He carries his tokens to the video store, selects the game he desires, places the tokens on the checkout counter and his mom swaps the $5 game charge for the tokens.

In order for this plan to work, you must have tokens readily available so that the child can be rewarded immediately upon observing any good behavior.

For example, if your son picks up a piece of trash in the yard and places it in the garbage can without having to be asked, give him a white token on the spot and praise the behavior.

Be consistent in giving rewards as well as withholding them until the desired behavior occurs.  Avoid feeling guilty when your child does not get to skate or play video games this weekend because they didn’t accumulate enough tokens.

Provide alternatives for high valued activities.  If your child does not have enough token points to go to the movies, he may have enough to go for ice cream instead.

Allow your son or daughter to come to you with suggestions about chores that can be rewarded, as well as new rewards.  Keep a “reward chart” in a highly visible place so everyone can see how your child is doing with chores, manners, schoolwork, church duties, etc.

Name	Date	Behavior	Points	Earned Activity
Jeffrey	9-6	picked up toys	5	skating
Erica	9-7	cleaned all room	10	2 hrs phone

• Be flexible in making and changing your plan, even on a weekly basis, but be consistent in carrying it out.
  
   
• Have everything in writing and posted on the fridge.
  
   
• Use tokens that cannot be easily duplicated.
  
   
• Do not take away tokens for punishment.  You are trying to promote good behavior and not associate your reward system with poor behavior.

Always punish behavior, not the child.  Every child can be good and still have poor behavior.  Hug your child even when he does not get a token for his behavior.

Hopefully, the Red, White, and Blue Chip Program will help your child grow in a positive learning environment.

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