Why Use a Reward Chart?

Struggling to get your child to share their toys with a friend? Eat all the food on their plates? Tidy their bedroom? Master toilet training? Do their homework? If any of these situations are bringing a wry grin to your face, have you ever tried using a reward chart with your child?

The debate continues as to whether praise or punishment work best with small children and most parents use a combination of both.  However, common to all young children is the desire for attention and by paying attention to good behavior parents will generally find that that behavior becomes the norm. It is so easy to leave a child playing well on their own to their own devices and shout at a child misbehaving but to a young child negative attention is often better than no attention.

So, why use a reward chart? Reward charts are an effective, tangible tool which parents can use to help their children develop into happy, healthy and well rounded individuals. Not only can they provide a simple framework that children can use to aid positive development but they can also help parents feel more confident in their abilities as a parent. Using a reward chart highlights the positives rather than the negatives in our children’s behavior. They are flexible and can be used to help with many behavioral problems. They are a gentle but powerful way of guiding our children towards the behavior which is expected of them.

Remember-  Reward charts are only really effective if the parent or care giver is consistent and understands exactly what they want to achieve

We have a range of Reward charts for children aged between 1 to 12 years,  visit our website at http://www.victoriachartcompany.com/ and to stay up to date with current offers and discount codes join us at www.fb.com/VictoriaChartCompany.

Change Undesired Behavior by Implementing a Reward Board!

Using postive reinforcement as a method to discipline children helps parents and carers to enhance their child's self esteem. Not only do children learn right from wrong in a positive way, it also encourages them to become more confident and feel proud of their progress. A reward chart is the vital tool to help parents and carers addressing such issues.  It acts as visual reminder to positively acknowledge a child's progress.


We have found an interesting article written by Craig at autismspot.com,  just published which discusses changing undesired behavior in children using a reward system. Here is an extract from the report:

I absolutely love using positive intervention strategies to help reinforce positive behavior! Too many times (and over too many years), I have seen teachers verbally discipline students for inappropriate behavior (sometimes screaming at the top of their lungs), and while such a tactic may have its time and place (when and where, I'm not sure), it often, in the end, does little to change the behavior for the better. As a matter of fact, it often has the opposite effect.


Take Brandon, for example, a third grade student in a typical third grade classroom. Brandon often exhibits off-task behaviors such as eloping (i.e, walking away from his seat without the teacher’s permission), talking to his neighbor at inappropriate times, and will sometimes refuse to complete independent work at his seat. These behaviors, which have persisted over three months now, often frustrate his teacher, who has resorted to using harsh verbal discipline as a means to correct it. For example, when Brandon is observed eloping from his seat without permission, his teacher will draw negative attention to the behavior by yelling at him in front of his peers. This, as one can imagine, is neither effective or helpful. She might even take it a step further by keeping him in for recess, if the behaviors persists. Not only does this attract negative, unwanted attention from Brandon’s peers, but it also makes him feel badly about himself. While using verbal discipline may help stop the behavior in the moment, it, again, does not do much to truly change the behavior. As a direct result, not only do the behaviors persist, but Brandon’s confidence and self-worth is quickly on the decline as a result. Because Brandon is not rewarded for anything positive, he makes little attempt to change the behavior, himself. And why should he? He has no incentive to do so.

Now let’s take Ryan. Ryan is also a third grade student who demonstrates behaviors that are similar to Brandon’s (eloping from his seat, talking to his neighbor, refusal to complete assigned tasks, etc.). Ryan’s teacher, however, takes a more positive, proactive approach to these behaviors, in hopes to eventually change (not just stop) the behaviors – permanently! Instead of focusing so much on Ryan’s negative behaviors, his teacher highlights the positives by constantly praising him for the things he does right! (i.e., timely completion of tasks, appropriate social interactions, etc.) While Ryan’s teacher will use verbal reinforcement as a means of reinforcing positive behavior, she also uses a tactile/visual approach by implementing a Reward Board. (Ryan’s teacher knows the importance of using a multi-sensory approach.) Notice that Ryan’s teacher uses the term, “Reward Board,” as opposed to “Behavior Chart.” “Reward Board” has a more positive intonation to it, whereas “Behavior Chart” (in my opinion) has more of a negative one. Again, if our goal is to change a child’s behavior, we want to be consistent with focusing on the positives. Doing so will allow the child to feel better about himself, which, ultimately, is what it’s all about! Now, this is not to say that we shouldn’t ever correct observed inappropriate behaviors, but rather we should give greater attention to the positive behaviors we see.  To continue reading the article .....


We know from many years of experience how important it is to reinforce good behavior by being positive - a little like a child receiving a sticker at the Doctors office when he/she has been brave. All children LOVE receiving attention. It it all too easy to forget to recognize good behvior in your child and to focus on the negative. By using a reward chart, your child will realize that they can get attention from their good behaviors too, and the negative behaviors will ease.


The Victoria Chart Company™ was founded in 2004 by Victoria Ballard.  Visit the facebook page at www.facebook.com/victoriachartcompany to receive coupons and to stay up to date with current offers.

Children Need a Daily Routine to Succeed at School

We all know how important a daily routine is for our family, but this new study sheds some very interesting information we wanted to share with you. We at The Victoria Chart Company know the importance of regular bedtimes, family meals together, daily routines and we support this ethos in our Children's Reward Charts. Our founder Victoria Ballard has been demonstrating the benefits of routine in her products for the last seven years in the UK and more recently in the USA. 

As Tim Ross, in reported in Children's Health in The Daily Telegraph, UK - Children who grow up without the daily routine of regular bedtimes and family meals achieve worse results at school, a report warns:

The study from the Prince's Trust, the Prince of Wales's youth charity, finds that almost four in 10 pupils who fail to achieve at least five C-grades in their GCSEs do not have a set bedtime.

Young people with lower school grades were also twice as likely as their more successful classmates not to have regular family meal times while growing up.

The annual Prince's Trust Youth Index also discloses growing despair among the jobless generation of young people who have left school or university and are struggling to find employment.

The report underlines the importance of a structured upbringing in children's success at school and confidence in adulthood. It finds that young people who claim to have "lacked structure and direction" while growing up were less confident than their peers.

Martina Milburn, the chief executive of the Prince's Trust, said: "The absence of structure and routine in a young life can have a devastating impact. Without the right support, directionless teenagers can become lost young adults – unconfident, underqualified and unemployed."

Teachers have complained that growing numbers of children turn up to lessons too tired to concentrate after spending the previous night watching television or playing computer games and child development experts have warned that the influence of screen-based technology on the brains of young children can harm their prospects for success at school. 

The Prince's Trust finds that a quarter of the 2,136 young people aged 16 to 25 in the survey claim they did not have a set bedtime while growing up.

This rose to 39 per cent among those who left school with fewer than five A*-C grades at GCSE. Young people with poorer grades were also more than twice as likely as their peers to say they did not have regular meal times.

The study also finds that unemployed young people are losing hope for the future, with 51 per cent saying they were confident of finding work, down from 54 per cent last year.

More than half the young people who were out of work and not in education or training claimed they "often" or "always" felt depressed, compared with 28 per cent of their peers who had jobs or were studying.

Ms Milburn said that the charity ran clubs in schools to give disaffected young people "intense, structured support" to prevent them dropping out of education or being excluded from class.

It also provided after school "one-to-one" sessions with mentors to help young people improve their self-esteem.


Reward Charts from The Victoria Chart Company available for children 1 to 12 years of age to help build their self-esteem enabling them to become confident and, most importantly, proud of their progress.

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