Q : how do you get a child to take medicine?
A : offer a cup of ribena to go with it.
Q : how do you get a child to do homework?
A : allow some television after the job is accomplished.
Q : how do you get a child to brush teeth?
A : not by showing pictures of dental caries, i should think!!
not unlike adults, children are motivated by reward. after all, children ARE little adults, aren't they? so, to get the boy to brush his teeth TWICE a day, the wife got him.......
(1) a cute little toothbrush.....
... that actually stands on its own,
(2) fruity toothpaste to....er.....sweeten the deal..
& (3) to make him feel very much part of the family...
....a child-friendly stool to reach the wash basin.
i think i read somewhere (was it ruth liew's column?) that children should not be taught that the reward justifies the task, lest they grow up focussed solely on the bounty, without the promise of which, no voluntary effort will be duly expensed. like maybe, they should be coaxed to take medicine to get better, or they should complete their homework to gain knowledge.
but, seriously, how else can you really convince a child to brush his teeth TWICE a day?
16 comments:
No convincing or coaxing needed.
Just show the cane. period.
Back to the good old days that prob you and I have experienced.
LM: lol!
I think you need a bit of both. Plain reward alone is lame. Sometimes a bit of scaring is good. Showing pictures of caries is the truth mah. Show them some person without teeth, or with bad teeth and explain. Good object lesson.
Hard to show tough love, I know
las M,
the cane is exactly what i'd use, but thank goodness for mothers, who know how to do it the gentle way. i know for sure it works, bcos the boy really enjoys brushing his teeth!!
hi jonzz,
thanks for your comment.
the best time to instill any discipline is when they are still young & impressionable.
try that when they are all grown-up & set in their ways, & you can see why the Tak Nak anti-smoking campaign, even with its graphics depicting discoloured teeth, was doomed to failure.
just me,
that's why i leave the patient wife to do the coaxing & cajoling.
(the cane has been in storage for many years now)
hi doc,
is a reward like a bribe? *smile*
doc, so your wife is the "angel" and you the other one who always do the 'bad' things lah!? ;) will the children have this impression etched in their minds forver?
I say, if rotan today too small/thin, go buy a thicker longer meaner looking one!
hi alex,
indeed the line that separates the two get fuzzier by the day.
a reward is for a job well-done, but a bribe is for something you can't achieve the honest-to-goodness way.
someday, they may be used interchangeably.
or, is that day here already???
las M,
yeah, it would seem that way, but someone has to be the disciplinarian in the family, & someone else the comforter. check this blog in another 10 years to find out if that impression endures.
i've always thought that a thinner rotan cuts deeper.
That stool looks exactly like mine :D
The trouble of getting children to brush teeth two times a day seem very far away from me. I am very blessed.
Read my two postings here -
yantouch.wordpress.com/2005/12/23/
who-is-jesus/
yantouch.wordpress.com/2005/05/19/
blessings-from-happiness-to-greater-
happiness/
Hope you do not mind me doing some hard selling in your blog :)
In BM, we call it kaedah peneguhan positif and kaedah peneguhan negatif. Positive one means rewarding the child. Negative should mean canning, then. HHEhehehe.. but I guess after seeing my school giving award to students with the cleanest teeth, I was motivated to have really clean teeth too. But sad to say my teeth are not straight, so it's hard to brush. No matter how much and how hard. Grrr.
sbanboy,
the swedes are brilliant, aren't they, to design & produce something common to be practical, sturdy & yet affordable?
yan,
hard sell? nah, your blog already has it's regular readers (incl yours truly) although the comments are slow in forthcoming,
nevertheless, feel free to do more "hard sell" via my humble blog.
lynnx,
your gums must be bleeding a lot those days from the hard brushing!!
but i suspect you probably have won other awards, like maybe for being top student??
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