Today I read an old article from USA Today about how to motivate children with who is struggling in school. Good article and you can read it if you click the link.
SIX P'S
In The Motivation Breakthrough, Richard Lavoie outlines six motivational strategies, how they can be used and for whom they work:
Praise.
Specific, sincere praise focused on effort and improvement is effective for most children, especially for those motivated by status, recognition or affiliation (a need to belong).
Power.
Offering minor choices will help motivate power-driven, autonomous and aggressive children. Avoiding power struggles means figuring out how to give kids some power without ceding your own.
Projects.
Using projects to connect different disciplines can stimulate and motivate an autonomous or inquisitive child.
People.
Though all children need positive relationships, it's especially important for adults to build positive relationships with people-oriented kids.
Prizes.
Prizes hold huge appeal to children driven by status, recognition, affiliation or power. But because formal reward systems may divert attention from the actual task, Lavoie suggests intermittent rewards not announced ahead of time to celebrate best efforts.
Prestige.
To some extent, all children need to feel important, but for autonomous, aggressive, status- or power-driven children, prestige and recognition are fundamental. Consistent encouragement and opportunities to showcase their talents are important.
