Using Positive Praise Effectively

Praise is a fundamental part of creating a positive culture in our settings, and can act as one of our primary strategies to support de-escalation and encourage behaviour habits. It’s a simple way to reinforce behaviours we’d like to see, both with the individuals we support and with staff teams.

Recognising and commenting on another person’s strengths and successes can be extremely encouraging, and can help an individual feel confident in their own abilities. That said, we always have to consider individual preferences, as we do with any behaviour support. There is ongoing debate about the use of praise as opposed to describing behaviour, which is discussed later in this article.

Used effectively, praise can raise self-esteem and confidence, and can motivate those in our care. However, while there’s no doubt using praise can be supportive, it has its limitations, particularly if it’s not used effectively or sincerely.

How to praise

Praise is great for reinforcing the behaviours we want to encourage. By explicitly praising the behaviour, we’re giving it our attention and focus. Thinking about the Cycle of Influence, we know that behaviours drive a response and create experiences. This isn’t just for behaviours we want to discourage; it also affects behaviours we want to encourage, too.

It can also have an impact on other individuals. Hearing a behaviour being praised can encourage others to do the same thing:

• • “I like the way you’re sharing with your partner.“

• • “I can see you taking deep breaths to calm down. You’re doing really well.”

• • “Well done for waiting to have a turn.”

It’s important the individual understands exactly what they are receiving praise for. If we don’t make praise explicit, it can become tokenistic and meaningless. We need to avoid overusing general statements such as “Well done!” and “Great work!” For some of those in our care, connecting the action with the praise will not be obvious.

We also can’t assume that everybody loves gushing and public acts of praise; we can get to know the individual we’re supporting to understand how to use praise in a way that works for them. For some, compliments and attention can make them feel uneasy and self-conscious. We can consider how we communicate our praise in a less obvious way, such as a symbol or hand gesture, a quiet conversation without an audience, or, for some, written feedback. The more personalised we can be with the praise we’re giving, the more meaningful it becomes to the individual.