“Practical Tools for Parenting” an evening at Bonnie Academy

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On January 29, 2015, Bonnie Academy (Glendale, CA) hosted an informative evening for the parents and teachers.  The speaker of the evening was Shauna Dabiri-Far, LMFT.  Her specialty is working with children from the ages of 0 to 5 years.  The topic of the evening was “Practical Tools for Parenting”.  Bonnie Academy is in the process of having such parent information evenings for the future.  For those parents who were not able to make event, please see below regarding the topics that were visited:

 Practical Tools for Parenting

By Shauna Dabiri-far, LMFT—818-641-7099

 Positive attention, Encouragement and Praise

    1. Catch small positive behaviors
    2. Be specific
    3. Different forms of praise
    4. Be enthusiastic
    5. Praise immediately
    6. Proximal praise

 Tangible Rewards, Incentives and Celebrations

    1. Example of tangible rewards
    2. Spontaneous vs. Contract
    3. Creating behavioral contracts (specific, small at first, daily vs. weekly)
    4. Involve the child
    5. Temporary
    6. Work with Teachers

 Limit Setting

    1. Reduce commands
    2. One command at a time
    3. Give realistic, clear and polite commands
    4. Avoid negative commands
    5. Allow time to comply
    6. “When-Then” commands

 Active Ignoring

    1. Avoid discussion and eye contact
    2. Use consistent ignoring—Be prepared for negative behavior to get worse at first
    3. Move away from child but stay in the room
    4. Ignoring teaches self-control
    5. Teach others to ignore
    6. Limit number of behaviors to ignore and other behaviors should not be ignored
    7. Give back attention as soon as possible

 Time Out to Calm Down

    1. Short (ages), Parent controls start and end time and prep child
    2. Time out location (time out, calm down place or thinking chair)
    3. Describe the challenging behaviors that will result in time out
    4. Warnings based on behavior
    5. Set a timer or “chill bottle”
    6. Responding to child who refuses to go to time out (6 and under or 7 and over)
    7. Refusing to stay in time out