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How the Daily Review Helps You Get Your Child's Attention

April 6, 2016

There are a lot of things you want to teach your children and a big part of doing so includes effective communication. If your child doesn't want to listen, has their face glued to a screen or is trying to assert control by purposefully shutting your words out, it could be a frustrating and inefficient process towards any type of constructive change.

This is where incentives come into play into creating a more constructive long-term habit.

A common scenario is often demotivating...

A. A change to their normal routine which doesn't seem to yield any short term benefit to them

B. A limitation to their freedom

C. Criticizing in some way saying what they were doing was wrong.

As an experience designer, my challenge is making an experience like this pleasant and something they enjoy doing. So how do we do this? With positive incentives.

How the Daily Review can set a positive habit

One of the most important parts of the KidCash system is something called the Daily Review. This is when you set a time every day to go over your child's day, highlight whatever they did well at, explain what could be improved and give out rewards and tickets. 

More importantly, this is where you give your children your praise, approval, reasons and sometimes disappointment regarding their decisions. Your presence in your child's life is the real bread and butter of KidCash, and not the dollars. The currency just creates a very clear visual and easy to understand structure to encourage good habits to form.

And the secret sauce to creating a habit that's lasts is repetition with rewards. Each daily meeting is a chance for your child to get your full attention, to share what you know, to explain how everything is motivated by a desire to create a happy and self sufficient adult. Asking them to tell you the reasons as you reward or reluctantly dole out a ticket gives them motivation to pay attention. Doing this every day will get them into a routine of talking, actively listening, and coming to you for structure, support and explanation to the world around them. You are developing trust, love and an open line of communication which is vital the older they get. This is why they are all ears and we hope it stays that way for the long term.

Hopefully this makes a lot of sense and helps you create a strong relationship with your children like it has with mine. Happy parenting!

Lisa Chin Mollica has dedicated her life to creating user experiences for adults and children on the web, mobile and in product. She lives in Brooklyn NY with her husband who is a Lieutenant in the FDNY, her two toddlers ages 4 and 6 and their dog Nestle who never stops shedding.

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Legal: The opinions expressed here are anecdotal and solely my own. All data and information provided on this site is for informational purposes only. KidCash.com makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.

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