5 Parenting Hacks Every Parent Should Know

Introduction

When it comes to parenting a child, we know that there is a lot for you to remember, especially if you have a child with additional needs such as autism. So we thought we’d leave you with some helpful tips. In this article, we’ll share with you 5 parenting hacks or techniques you can use you manage your child’s behaviour.

RAPID is a mnemonic for five key parenting techniques that are easy to apply and maintain RAPID terms and brief explanations are as follows:

R stands for reward - this means you should heap on the social praise and highly valued rewards when you notice the types of behaviour you want to see in your child. Rewarding positive behaviour is a vital way to change challenging behaviour as it helps your child to understand what your expectations are.

A stands for attending to your child’s behaviour - this means commenting on what your child is doing and what you are doing. Attending also helps to create a language-rich environment by teaching them new words, actions and emotions. Attending will promote early critical thinking and reasoning skills in your child.

P stands for providing breaks - if your child needs to have time away from an overstimulating activity or is engaging in a behaviour that is inappropriate then you should allow them to have a break. If you are asking your child to do something that is hard for them then allow them to complete a shorter amount of the activity and model how they can ask for a break. This will help to reduce challenging behaviour but this should be used sparingly.

I stands for ignoring non-dangerous behaviour - it’s important to comment on your child’s behaviour when appropriate. A lot of the time, parents get into battles with their children by chasing and calling after them to stop what they are doing. Some children, see this as fun and exciting and continue to behave in this way in the long term. Situations like this cause added stress and sore throats. When you notice your child doing something inappropriate, rather than shout, you can direct your energy by playing with a toy or starting an activity you know your child likes. You can send your child positive signals such as talking about or starting a different activity as a means to redirect them.

D stands for direction giving - all children respond better to directions when they are simple and within context for example if you want your child to tidy up it would be better to ask the pick up an individual toy or item rather than say tidy up.

Recap on RAPID

RAPID is a mnemonic term for a set of behaviour change techniques that can help you as parents, teachers or carers decrease a child’s challenging behaviour. If you apply these steps you should start to see changes.

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