HelpKidsChange Post

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Two Different Approaches to Using the MotivAider in Education

In talking with MotivAider users across the country, I learned that MotivAider use falls into two distinct categories. Roughly half the MotivAiders out there are being used by children themselves. The rest are being used by teachers, other helpers and parents.

Because many MotivAider users have been exposed to only one of these categories of use and know relatively little about the other, I thought it might be helpful to briefly illustrate how each of these two very different approaches is being used to help children.

Although I've chosen just one specific example to represent each broad category of use, please note that the MotivAider is being used for an extremely wide range of specific purposes within both categories.

Use By Children

The MotivAider is often used to increase children's on-task behavior. One common strategy is to use the MotivAider to prompt the child to self-monitor attentional focus. Whenever the child feels the MotivAider vibrate, she essentially asks herself, "Am I on task?" Many users actually have the child record the answers to that question on a special form the child keeps on her desk.

Use By Teachers, Helpers and Parents

Teachers, helpers and parents often know exactly what they should do to have the greatest positive impact on a child's behavior. But remembering to do it—and doing it consistently—is a whole different story. One of the best examples of this is the use of praise. Although we know from research that praising children for good behavior—making a point of catching them doing the right thing and acknowledging their success—can do wonders, it's easy for that knowledge to get lost in the shuffle of a busy classroom. That's why the MotivAider is so often being used to prompt adults to systematically apply praise.

Synergy!

I confess that one of the approaches that intrigues me the most involves the simultaneous use of MotivAiders by a child and a helper. The child's and teacher's MotivAiders are synchronized so they send signals at precisely the same time. In one case I'm familiar with, whenever the child felt the vibration, it reminded her to keep her thumb out of her mouth. Whenever the teacher felt the vibration, it prompted her to glance at the child and acknowledge her success with a smile. Not only was the thumb-sucking problem quickly solved, the relationship between the child and the teacher flourished as a result of them sharing these secret "contacts" every few minutes.

—Steve Levinson, Ph.D., Inventor of the MotivAider