Sticker Charts Do They Work? What Tasks to Put on Them?

I did the dollar store with mine and they loved it!
I would have them do things like;
Help set the table
Feed the pets
Bring in the mail
Pick up toys

In Love and Logic classes they have a segment on chores. The person in the video suggested everyone sitting down and talking about chores.

One person says I pay the bills, mow the lawn, work on the cars, etc...the other says I do the laundry, the cooking, the cleaning of the kitchen, etc.... Then ask the child what they think they would like to do to contribute to the family. Then lead them towards the chores you'd like but allow them to select their own. This way they have some sense of choices about what chores that get on their chart. Keep them simple and plan on helping them for a long time.

He also told a story about his college age son coming home on break and them doing dishes. The son told his dad he could still hear the germs screaming when he did dishes. The dad had washed dishes with him for years and they had a routine that went something like this.....

They ran hot water on the dishes to rinse off the germs, the germs went round and round the sink in the hot water then down in to the disposal where they sat until the disposal was turned on then they screamed and screamed as they went down the drain. The son had this imagine in his mind and loved making germs scream.

I imagine he'll teach that to his kids when they learn to do dishes too. How fun it must have been for him to have that special time with his dad where they worked together and accomplished the task without having to yell and boss someone around.

Great question! My ideas...

Be very, very specific for a preschooler. As in, don't say "clean up your room" or even "pick up your clothes" -- those are overwhelming to kids preschool age. Instead, try "Put 2 toys in the red bin" or if there's one toy she always leaves out, "Put Bunny on the bed." VERY specific.

Limit the number of items on the list. Again, kids this age get overwhelmed so you want to give her very achieveable goals so she feels she's really done something. Maybe three or four items. For example:

Put socks in the hamper (and put the hamper in her room!)
Put today's clothes in the hamper
Put shoes in the shoe box by the door (or wherever they live)
Put Bunny on the bed

She doesn't read enough yet to read these things, right? So along with the list do a little cartoon drawing of the action or just a pair of shoes or a shirt going into a hamper etc. That makes the chart fun and gives her cues even if she can't read: "OK, what's next on your chart?" She can answer that without reading if she has the pictures.

And that's all, at least at first until she's consistently doing that. Go over the chart and have her do the tasks at the same time every day if possible, and preferably at a good time for her -- not when she's likely to be tired, or hungry, or in the middle of playing (she will balk if asked to stop playing to check off the chore chart). You likely will have to be right there with her for a while as she does these and checks them off the chart herself -- I'd let her put on the stickers for herself once you see her do the chore. Be a cheerleader as she's doing things.

I would review it, at first, maybe twice a week for rewards. Waiting a week at her age may be a bit too long, for a new routine. Perhaps go three days the first time, and if all is good, reward her however you like but fairly small--so you can build to bigger rewards later. Then go another four days and check things off for a second reward, and make a fuss over how "you went a whole WEEK doing everything on the chart! Wow!" You could keep up the shorter three- or four-day schedule for another week or two and then see if she's up for the challenge of going an entire week for a bigger reward. Make it concrete, though -- young kids won't wait long for concrete rewards and aren't good at deferring pleasure! So saving too long for something she wants may not work for a while yet, unless she's very good already at visualizing a reward that's not achievable for some time to come, and most preschoolers aren't.

Good luck! I bet it will work if she's motivated by the stickers at school. I guess the point is to start small, slow and very specific.

We use a different kind of sticker chart from what most people use that is working very well for our family. We have all of the fruits of the spirit written on our chart (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control). Our son gets stickers each time he shows a fruit. Our rules are that he can't do something and ASK for a sticker, and he can't expect a reward for filling up the chart (although DH and I decided that we will do something special after 3 rows are filled up, but our son doesn't know). He gets so excited because he can get more than 1 sticker a day, and he can even get more than 1 sticker on a fruit a day (if that makes sense). He has started making it a contest to see which fruit will have a full row first. We also can easily see and talk about what he needs to work on (patience and self control seem to be the two lowest).

We tried a chore chart a while back, and he liked it for a week or two, but then it was old news. This seems to be working much better. As far as chores go, we give faithfulness a sticker when he does something without us having to ask. We started this two or three weeks ago, and just recently are we seeing a difference in him (example: tonight he had a friend over, and my husband told him it was time to say good bye and come in to get ready for bed. The immediate response was "Yes sir" and a "bye" to his friend. Usually it's a fight). We made a big deal about that and gave him several stickers for that one reaction - peace, faitfulness and self control.

whew . . . .long answer for your fairly simple question. LOL hope it helps someone :)

For a non-reader/emergent reader, incorporating pictures into your chart will help them be able to follow the steps independently (once you have practiced it with them a few times to learn it). We did this for my son when he was 4-5 and he was having a hard time keeping the bathroom tidy (his older brother too, but especially him) I took a photo of each area as it should be when tidy - counter top, floor, toilet - then also typed a key word for each item with the first letter bolded - he could recognize the sound of the first letter and think back to our practice sessions, refer to the picture, and remember what the word was. This worked really well!

We currently have three check lists per day our boys do - one for before school, one for right after school, and one for after dinner. We have a star chart that we "update" after each of these periods, so there are three set times each day the kids know they get stars. If they have a bad time during one of these periods, that doesn't ruin their whole day, and they get more frequent reinforcement so they aren't working all day toward their stars - this came on recommendation from the psychologist for our 6 year old who has challenges with his focus and impulse control. But while he is completing these checklists (brush teeth tidy room, get backpack packed) the boys are actually receiving the stars for behavioral goals - following directions the first time, using nice words/voice, respecting personal space (no bugging or hitting siblings) and accepting no for an answer. So they are getting the things they need to do on the checklist done, but it is the behavior while they are completing their tasks that we are reinforcing.

Updated

Oh, I forgot some details - our child psychologist also said she would not pay a child for what they are expected to do. Everything they do is a privilege (TV, computer, playing outside, reading fun books, playing with friends) and they earn those privileges by completing their checklists. So our boys know, in the morning, once they have done everything to be ready for school, they can play around outside, watch a little TV, whatever. Same after school - their checklist is very short - snack, homework, tidy bedroom/playroom if they ran out of time in the morning) and then they can go to a friend's house, have half an hour of screen time (if they did not have a color change at school), or whatever until it is time for any practice they have that night, or dinner.

I simply stared giving a check mark, on the calendar for good behavior.
Brushing teeth with no whinning, picking up toys, trying a bite of the peas etc. Any bad behavior for the day, warrants an x on the calendar. I have given no limit on, the amount of check marks he can get, before we buy a new toy, or game.

We have a really cool behavior chart from "melissa & doug" - it is wooden and magnetic. There are some pre-made "behaviors" to choose from and there are a couple empty tags to fill in yourself (we've not had to use them). There are different colored smiley faces with encouraging words like "awesome," "great job," "fantastic," etc... my son has been using it since he was 3 and he loves it - he is 5 now. Each week we set some behaviors we like to work on and at the end of each day we let him fill in the smiley faces and discuss what he did to get a smiley for that behavior (or what he did that kept him from getting a smiley). He is so excited about the smiley faces that we've never had to add anything to the encouragement list.

My next door neighbor has 3 little princesses. She made them each a poster with a castle at the top and steps along a widning path from the bottom to tthe top. She made each girl a differant princess - Ariel, Belle, and Snow White. She printed them off the internet, cut them out and laminated them. She attached velcro to each princess. There are tasks all along the path with a little circle of velcro next to it. So as the girls go through thier day, they are racing to the castle. Every good deed gets them a little closer - made her bed, brushed teeth, etc. Every tantrum or rebelious act knocks them back a step. 1st to the top may get to pick the video they watch or the book they read at bedtime. Once they get to the castle they get a sticker on thier shirt or something like that. I see it realy working with these girls.

I take a very low key approach to this. My son gets stickers for doing good things ... we don't really have a list, I just announce that I'm really pleased with something he's done and give him a sticker. So, there are certain things that he routinely gets stickers for (getting himself dressed quickly and without complaint, staying in his room during quiet time, putting his shoes away himself, etc.) and other things that are more spontaneous (I notice him sharing very nicely with his brother, for instance). I use TV as a reward (not everyone may like that, but it works for us). Normally he gets to watch one 30 min show a day, but when he gets 20 stickers then he gets to watch either two short shows or one longer one. I've got it timed so that he gets the extra show about once every 8 or 9 days.

Oh, I should add that the chart really does help. It just helps ease my son over his initial resistance to some task, and then it becomes a good habit that he does without reward.