Lesson 4

Positive Attention, Praise, and Rewards

Recommendation 3 focuses on increasing expected behavior by intentionally noticing and acknowledging it. This lesson examines how school psychologists can help teachers move beyond vague praise toward specific, meaningful, equitable, and sustainable systems of acknowledgment.

Recommendation 3 Strong Evidence Positive Attention Behavior-Specific Praise Rewards

Reading Assignment

Teacher-Delivered Behavioral Interventions in Grades K–5

Read Recommendation 3: Pages 28–38

Pay particular attention to the distinctions among positive attention, praise, and rewards; behavior-specific praise; student preferences; equitable acknowledgment; and adjusting the frequency of reinforcement over time.

Open Reading PDF →

Summary of the Recommendation

Notice the Behaviors You Want to See More Often

Positive acknowledgment is more than being nice to students. When teacher attention, praise, or rewards reliably follow an expected behavior, those consequences can strengthen the likelihood that the behavior will occur again.

The guide distinguishes among three related strategies. Each can be useful, but they are not interchangeable.

Positive Attention Warm, genuine interactions that communicate interest, connection, and appreciation of the student.

Behavior-Specific Praise A positive statement that clearly identifies the behavior the student demonstrated successfully.

Rewards Activities, items, privileges, social experiences, or other consequences that are meaningful to the student and contingent on expected behavior.

School psychology connection: When a teacher says, “Praise doesn't work with this student,” the useful consultation questions are: What behavior was praised? What exactly was said or delivered? How consistently did it follow the behavior? And was the consequence actually meaningful to this particular student?

Implementation Process

Building an Effective Acknowledgment System

Identify the behaviors to acknowledge.
Focus attention on observable behaviors that are connected to classroom expectations and meaningful student success.

Learn what students value.
Attention, praise, and rewards do not function identically for every student. Student and caregiver input can help identify preferences and culturally relevant forms of acknowledgment.

Make praise specific.
Tell the student what they did successfully rather than relying only on broad statements such as “good job.”

Deliver rewards contingently.
Make the connection between the expected behavior and the earned outcome clear enough that the student understands what led to the reward.

Actively scan for success.
Teachers may naturally notice problem behavior more readily than successful behavior. Deliberate scanning increases opportunities to acknowledge students who are meeting expectations.

Adjust the rate over time.
Higher rates of acknowledgment may be useful while a behavior is being established. As the behavior becomes more consistent, reinforcement can become less frequent while still maintaining success.

Why This Matters for School Psychologists

“We Already Praise Them” Does Not Tell You Enough

In consultation, broad descriptions such as “I praise him all the time” or “rewards don't work” provide very little information about the actual intervention. The psychologist can help determine whether acknowledgment is specific, contingent, frequent enough, meaningful, and distributed equitably.

Specificity Matters “Excellent job opening your book and starting right away” tells the student substantially more than “good job.”

Preference Matters A consequence that one student enjoys may be neutral or even unpleasant for another student.

Equity Matters Review who receives positive attention and who receives primarily correction. Patterns may differ across students or groups.

Timing Matters Acknowledgment should occur close enough to the behavior that the connection between behavior and consequence is clear.

Authenticity Matters Praise should sound genuine and fit the teacher, student, relationship, and classroom context.

Fading Matters The long-term goal is not constant external reinforcement. Support should shift as behavior becomes more established.

Interactive Activity 1

Which Praise Is More Useful?

Choose the statement that most clearly identifies the successful student behavior.

Situation 1: Maya begins independent work immediately after the direction.

Situation 2: Noah raises his hand and waits to be called on.

Situation 3: Lena transitions to her small group with all required materials.

Situation 4: Amir asks appropriately for help rather than leaving his seat.

Interactive Activity 2

Build an Acknowledgment Plan

Select the strongest components for a student whose independent work behavior is just beginning to improve.

Olivia frequently delays beginning written assignments. After consultation, the target behavior is defined as beginning the assigned task within two minutes. Olivia says she dislikes public attention but enjoys choosing the classroom music during independent work.

What behavior should be acknowledged?

What type of praise best fits?

What reward is most defensible?

What should happen as success becomes consistent?

Interactive Activity 3

“Praise Doesn't Work”

Work through a consultation in which a teacher believes positive reinforcement has already failed.

Decision 1 of 3

A teacher says, “I've tried positive reinforcement. I tell Marcus good job all day long and nothing changes.”

What should you ask first?

You learn that Marcus receives “good job” at various times throughout the day, often unrelated to a clearly defined behavior. The teacher has never asked Marcus what kinds of acknowledgment he prefers.

What is the strongest next step?

Over the next several weeks, Marcus demonstrates the target behavior consistently with less frequent adult acknowledgment.

What is the best next consultation decision?

Interactive Activity 4

What Does the Attention Data Suggest?

Apply the concepts from this lesson to analyze patterns of teacher attention, praise, and reinforcement. Use the information provided in the activity to develop and explain your response.

Please log in to complete this activity.

Lesson Summary

Key Takeaways for School Psychologists

Positive attention, behavior-specific praise, and rewards are related but distinct forms of acknowledgment.
Behavior-specific praise clearly identifies the behavior that the student demonstrated successfully.
Rewards should be meaningful to the individual student rather than assumed to be reinforcing.
Teachers may need to deliberately scan for expected behavior because problem behavior can attract attention more readily.
School psychologists can help examine whether positive acknowledgment is specific, contingent, timely, equitable, and actually valued by students.
Higher rates of reinforcement may be appropriate while behavior is being established, followed by gradual thinning as students become more successful and independent.

Previous Lesson

Back to Course

Next Lesson