After what felt like months of trying different approaches to get Matty to listen and do things the first time he was asked, rather than the 12th (a lofty ambition for a 4-year-old I realize), I initiated a simple board where he would earn stars for tasks. I told him when the board was full he could pick out a treat. And it worked better than I could have imagined!
Each time he earned a star I wondered to myself what the heck I was going to do when he filled that page. Then last week he came home from an outing with Daddy to MicroCenter and he knew exactly what he wanted - the green piggy from Angry Birds! Goes well with the red Angry Bird the Easter Bunny left him not so long ago.
He had only 2 more stars to earn and soon after we found our way back to MicroCenter to find him that piggy! Very proud of him and pleasantly surprised how well the baiting for listening worked!
It's amazing what a little positive reinforcement can do!
