In my experience working with

In my experience working with children and their teachers, behavior charts work great...until they don't. They work when the child has the skills to deal with the who, what, where. While the criteria is often concrete, things in the environment and their internal state change all the time. To summarize, 9/10 times, it isn't the chart that is "working."

" You start each day with the hopes that today will be the day that the classroom expectations sink in, but alas, he has that same difficulty again." One way they go wrong is they overlook skill deficits and put an emphasis on motivation.

"Card changes came with consequences, but unless parents were concerned about daily behavior, students with behavior challenges kept having the same challenges. " Another way they go wrong is that the motivation they attempt to inspire is driven by promise of consequence. Plenty of the children I have worked with have had "consequences" from parents that most of us could never dream of, and it doesn't change their behavior...even though they fear it and know it is very real and coming for them after the fact. Like a sticker chart, that fear will work when they are in a moment and place where they can deal in the environment and their internal state.

Another form of motivation is coming from shame. Especially if they are displayed for all to see like the sticks, clips, and whatnot. I'm guessing most teachers would never want to work in an environment where their performance evaluations were hung on the outside of their classroom doors. It may motivate us ...but only in a moment and place where we can deal in the environment and and internal state.