Reasons to Reward
The following thoughts are from our guest blogger on merit stickers.
Merit stickers are widely used in schools to reward good behaviuor and different levels of achievements. But they are especially useful for children’s sport activities!
First of all it’s fun. No doubt about it and it’s fun for both sides for kids and for their parents. Having something visually attractive as a reward makes children motivated to get more, to collect them as a prize, to show everyone around that you won a game. Once you get them, you want more. Following this, others see and try to catch up and the game goes on. It’s no secret that kids like to play, so when they get rewarded it makes them do better or follow those who are on top. I think that merit stickers are just the right thing for this purpose. They are usually very bright and colorful, they even be collectables, especially for their parents who also like to show off. I know that for myself, when my son start training at karate school I was like a kid myself, I remember taking all his little awards to work and showing to colleagues and nobody thought it was ridiculous. Not to mention visitors to the house!
So back to the point of stickers, showing and comparing stickers among kids make them also competitive and this is also motivating factor to progress in their field, whatever sport activity you choose. This factor takes away the hardness of the training and points kid’s attention into different direction, so it’s easier for them to be less tired and bored. Nothing can work better to turn a bored child into an excited and active one.
Because of the variety of stickers you can get, it comes very easy to take advantage of this simple motivation no matter how different their preferences are. In any case merit stickers make children feel important and appreciated, it makes huge impact in their behavior and attitude. As a result they will get used to progress and get better in anything they involve in, not only sport.
It’s inexpensive and cheerful method very easy to implement and I would advise all coaches and teachers to use it as a tool to reward young athletes.
