Incentives Don’t Have To Be Big To Be Effective

Find the thing the kid would rather be doing, and use it to motivate them to do what they’re supposed to be doing.

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Incentives don’t have to be big to be effective.

They just need to be something the kid really cares about.

Find the thing the kid would rather be doing, and use it to motivate them to do what they’re supposed to be doing.

Back when I was teaching, I had a kid who was not getting her work done.

But then her mom set up an incentive structure where if she got her work done each week, they would go to the bookstore on the weekend and she could pick whatever book she wanted.

She was super into reading, particularly fantasy novels.

And once that incentive structure was in place, it was like I had a completely new student.

The next day she walked into class and announced to her friends, “all right, nobody talk to me.”

They’re all like, “lol, what?”

And she goes, “if I finish all my work I get a book this weekend. So nobody talk to me.”

Later on during the class, one of her friends had finished enough XP that you could reasonably go chat with your buddy if they’ve done their XP.

And she was like, “sorry, I can’t talk right now. I want my book this weekend.”

It was hilarious.

A good incentive doesn’t have to be super complicated or expensive.

You just need to find something that hits your kid’s receptors on what they want to do.

If they were not doing math, what would they rather be doing in their free time?

Or what do they get really excited about?

Center the incentive around that.

Discussed ~30:10 in Math Academy Podcast #5, Part 2: Getting Kids To Do Hard Things.

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