Behavior Record Chart

Over the last 6 years, we've worked with several behavior therapists to help manage our 3 sons' behavior challenges.  In the beginning it was finding a solution for head-banging or feces-smearing.  We have encountered many obstacles that were unimaginable to us prior to becoming foster/adoptive parents.  

Currently we are trying to manage physical aggression, name calling, spitting, property destruction, antagonizing each other, and doing something the first time they are asked.  That may seem like a lot.  Well it is.  Some days it is absolutely overwhelming!  Why did we wait so long to seek help?  Well it wasn't by choice.  Trying to qualify for the level of services we are currently receiving was a 6 month process of being at the end of our rope.  To find out more, you can read this post.

On the flip side, usually all 3 of them don't have a difficult day together, and for that we are thankful.  The boys can be incredibly witty, entertaining, loving, helpful, and just fun to be around.  

We have set-up and used several reward systems, but they usually lose their novelty and the boys lose interest.  It also has to be a system that is fairly easy for us to manage.  I am pleased to share our current behavior management system.

This is a small pocket chart with all of younger kids' names and 1 card of each color: green, yellow and red.  If they are doing well, then they are on green.  If they need a *reminder* to calm down or to comply with instructions, then they are on yellow.  If they require a timeout for continued disobedience or exhibiting a target behavior, they are on red.  (*The reminder we give them is: "Stop, breathe & think."  Then they must show us they are taking a deep breath and tell us what they need to do.)  

Since we are trying to help the kids recognize and be more in tune with their emotions, we took pictures of each of them making faces.  We began with happy, sad, mad, and surprised.  They can put the picture of how they are feeling in their slot as well.

This is a sample of our recording sheet from the second week.  You'll notice we split each of the 3 evaluation periods (morning, afternoon and evening) into fourths.  This was so that each evaluation period was basically an hour and the kids would have more chances of resetting back to green and therefore earning more points. The points they earn they can cash in for different rewards (example:  a toy from the grab bag, a piece of candy from the candy bag, extra 10 minutes on the Wii, etc.).

This is a sample from our third week.  We split the evaluation periods (morning, afternoon and evening) in half so each evaluation was now every 2 hours.  We also added a new target behavior (upping the ante).  Notice the decrease in the amount of red squares this week.  The kids are getting the hang of this new system and we are loving it!

You can download this Behavior Record Chart free (for personal use only).

Let me know what you think, leave a comment below.

~Nicole~