Basic Principles Article #7: Using TAGteach to Gain Co-operation Around the House

TAGteach™ (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) is a new way of teaching using positive reinforcement with a click sound marker to identify successful performance. In past columns we have talked about the tag point – the exact response, action or position that a teacher pinpoints with a tag (the click sound) to tell the student “YES, that was right!”, how to associate the audible tag with a tangible reinforcer and how to harness the power of peer tagging. Here we talk about how TAGteach can be used to help gain co-operation around the house with household chores. Yes your pre-teen can clean her room and be happy to do it!

Identify the Tag Point

Think about what it is you want your child to do (as opposed to what you want him not to do). For example “I want my kids to take their dishes from the table, clear the plates into the garbage and put the dishes in the dishwasher”. Since this is a relatively simple sequence that most children can easily follow, you explain the sequence and then say “the tag point is dishes in the dishwasher”. Discuss this at breakfast and get agreement from everyone that this is the tag point for the next week.

Choose the Reinforcer

It is beneficial to have agreement about the reinforcer that will be earned for each tag. It could be a ticket in a jar that the family will redeem for popcorn and a movie once there are 100 tickets in the jar. It could be a sticker on chart leading up to some other ultimate reward or it could be the immediate delivery of a skittle or a new colored pencil. Discussing both the tag point and the nature of the reinforcer will ensure the success of the game.

Implement the Game

Remind the children of the tag point at the end of the meal if it seems that someone might forget. If they do forget, just keep quiet and leave the dishes on the table. Put your own dishes in the dishwasher, tag yourself and put a ticket in the jar. This may seem silly and contrived at first, but if you are creative with your tag points and the reinforcement is worth working for you will soon find that an air of cooperation takes over as everyone works towards a common goal. Resist the urge to nag or remind after the fact and pretend that you really don’t care about the dishes. Never mind that you are rewarding the children for doing what they “should” do anyway. Use rewards that you would give them for free anyway (family night at the movies for example). After a week or so of putting the dishes in the dishwasher, this will become a habit that will not need to be reinforced every time and you can move on to something else.

Multiple Tag Points

When teaching a physical skill, the tag point is very narrowly defined. With behaviors around the house, however, it is feasible to have more broadly defined tag points. For example the kids could all have their own taggers and anytime anyone sees anyone else doing anything helpful they can tag the other (they could say “tag” if there is not an actual tagger handy). This gives a group of children a way to earn a lot of tickets in the jar quickly while practicing cooperative behavior at the same time.

Next time we will talk about using TAGteach to help teach math and science concepts.

We invite you to join the TAGteacher discussion group at www.tagteach.com to meet others who are implementing TAGteach in various disciplines and to see the list of upcoming TAGteach seminars.