Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Systems for daily life
A report card with nothing attached to it changes nothing. The ratings have to lead somewhere at home, to something earned or not earned that day.
The sheet is only a measurement. What actually shifts behaviour is what follows it, which means the family side is where these plans live or die. Worth agreeing the small print in advance: what a good day gets, what a poor day means, and who says so. Vague good intentions on Sunday evening will not survive Wednesday.
Qur’an and Sunnah
when you have decided on a course of action, put your trust in God (Quran 3:159). Deciding is one step and acting on it is the next, and a report that leads to nothing has stopped at the first.
فَبِمَا رَحۡمَةࣲ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ لِنتَ لَهُمۡۖ وَلَوۡ كُنتَ فَظًّا غَلِيظَ ٱلۡقَلۡبِ لَٱنفَضُّواْ مِنۡ حَوۡلِكَۖ فَٱعۡفُ عَنۡهُمۡ وَٱسۡتَغۡفِرۡ لَهُمۡ وَشَاوِرۡهُمۡ فِي ٱلۡأَمۡرِۖ فَإِذَا عَزَمۡتَ فَتَوَكَّلۡ عَلَى ٱللَّهِۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلۡمُتَوَكِّلِينَ
By an act of mercy from God, you [Prophet] were gentle in your dealings with them- had you been harsh, or hard-hearted, they would have dispersed and left you- so pardon them and ask forgiveness for them. Consult with them about matters, then, when you have decided on a course of action, put your trust in God: God loves those who put their trust in Him
Qur’an 3:159read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A randomised trial tested a whole strategy for keeping high-risk families engaged in group behavioural parent training, because families dropping out of programmes known to work is a long-standing problem. That tells you where the fragile part of a home-based plan usually is. It is one trial about attendance, not evidence about any particular reward system.
Chacko A, Wymbs BT, Chimiklis A, Wymbs FA, Pelham WE. (2012). Evaluating a comprehensive strategy to improve engagement to group-based behavioral parent training for high-risk families of children with ADHD.. Journal of abnormal child psychology doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Information on its own does not change anything, and what follows the information does.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Good help leaves you more able to do it yourself next time. If the whole thing only works while the other person is in the room, something has gone sideways.
Score each target from one to five rather than done or not done, and have the teacher say a word about it and initial the sheet before the child leaves the room.
Choose one person and tell them you will send the finished thing by a set time. Not a conversation about how it is going, just the file, the photo, or the word done.