Ollie is really into Transformers toys right now. And right now he is not entirely internally motivated to comply with our requests. Enter the sticker chart.
We first tried to do sticker charts to help motivate Ollie to stop sucking his thumb. The fact that he astoundingly stopped after the first day of thumb-sucking therapy pretty much made the sticker chart useless. Ollie didn’t seem excited about getting stickers for the sake of stickers. That fell by the wayside quickly.
A couple weeks ago, I was with Ollie at home and someone was doing some work in the house. I needed to keep him occupied so I showed him a random clip of a Transformer cartoon. Ollie’s fascination started then and hasn’t stopped. The thing is that I actually bought him a Rescue Bot Transformer (the part of this toy line designed for 3-7 year olds), a couple years ago and he wasn’t into it at all. However, after seeing the video clip, this toy her barely played previously with was his favorite.
There were more toys in the line that he wanted, but I just didn’t want to give it to him, so we started a sticker chart. He could get stickers for doing chores, eating well, doing work in his workbook, or comply with other request that we set out of him. After getting twenty stickers, which took about two weeks. Today he just earned his fourth Transformer.
Ollie has the sense of time and long-term motivation to keep the goal in mind at this point in his development. Sometimes the incentive of a sticker doesn’t get him to make his bed and sometimes it does. We’ve been going with the approach that we aren’t going to make him do a chore. He has the opportunity to do it and get a sticker or else, we just do it for him. I’m sure there’s an argument against doing it this way, but this system feels right for us.
I like that the sticker chart shows a level of progress and completion for tasks. Ollie likes his stickers and seeing his chart fill out. I’m not a huge fan of him doing something well and then immediately asking for a sticker. There are things that we ask him to do and the only reward is a “thank you” or a hug. Not everything he does will gets him a sticker and most of the time he’s okay with that.
I don’t love how he’s using a lot of “want” language in talking about what toy he’s earning. I know it will take time for him to develop feelings of positive accomplishment outside of the sticker, and we can already start seeing that when he feels after doing a chore and I point out how he is good he accomplished something and when I mention the sticker to him. Sometimes he forgets that it was part of the deal.
There’s a lot of talk about Transformers in our house, there’s a sticker chart on the refrigerator. We’ll see how this all pans out. For right now, it’s motivating Ollie. We are seeing him develop a sense of pride and accomplishment. Also, as a fan of Transformers toys my whole life, I don’t mind my special little guy taking an interest in these toys.
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