When you are trying to get children to do something, it is very tempting to use extrinsic rewards to motivate them. ‘If you eat all your dinner, you can have some pudding.’
The problem with extrinsic rewards, though, is that the child starts to expect the reward as a right, rather than behaving because they see the purpose behind the behaviour. If we focus too much on extrinsic rewards, eventually the child asks, ‘What do I get if I do that?’
The reward has become the point of the behaviour, rather than the behaviour coming from an intrinsic motivation. To get to intrinsic motivation, we have to take the time to discuss why a child needs to do something, rather than using a treat or a bribe.
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