Dr. Rene Hackney: Hi! I am Dr. Rene Hackney. I own and teach at Parenting Playgroups which is a Parent Resource Center. I have Masters in School Psychology and a PhD in Developmental Psychology. I also trained at Children s Hospital at the Developmental Clinic. Today, we are going to be talking about contribution which is a proactive discipline technique.

Host: What is contribution?

Dr. Rene Hackney: Contribution is a proactive discipline technique that encourages children to be proactively involved in their daily life. It really encourages and focuses on all the ways they can be helpful and all the ways they can be productive. One Psychologist wrote that a child should feel like, Wow! This family just can t get along without me. I do so much. Meaning they are helping at dinnertime, they are helping bedtime and they are contributing back to the family. This is a really Montessori philosophy where children in the Montessori classroom are preparing snacks and they are serving snacks and then they are cleaning up snacks. There is little misbehavior around snack time because it is their responsibility. So, the idea is really getting those kids involved in every part of daily life. Give them jobs, give them things to do that are theirs and they have ownership of.