Angela Kulcsar explains how to praise effectively: be immediate, specific, and explain why the behavior matters. She warns that the popular 5:1 praise-to-directions ratio can backfire for some learners, especially those who find social interaction taxing, turning praise into a demand rather than a reward.
As a teacher, clinician, or parent, you likely use praise all the time. But how much thought do you give to what that praise is? There are some important things you can— should consider when delivering praise. There are 3 important components of effective praise. First, it should be immediate. We want that connection to be really clear. This is the behavior that you did that was awesome that I want to see you do more often. And that goes into the next one: specific. Really, really focus in on what that awesome thing that they did was. Be specific with your praise. You want it to come right away, and then you want it to be specific. Show and tell them exactly what they did with this that was great. And last, you want to explain the value of the behavior. Give them the why. Why is this thing that you asked them to do, or this expectation that they met, so important in the grand scheme of things, in the short term, in the long term? Explain the value. "Great job on getting started on your math assignment right away. Now you'll stay on pace to complete the whole activity before recess." I love this type of praise because it's really complimenting and praising task initiation, a really important executive functioning skill. Hey, you got started right away, and this is the value of getting started right away. Now we can do the whole activity before we go out to recess. Let's talk about how often we should praise. There's some research, research that suggests, and I'm saying suggests with a little emphasis on that, that the goal is a 5:1 ratio of praise to directions. So that means for every 1 verbal direction you give, you should give 5 pieces of verbal praise. Now I have 2 asterisks here because I think for a lot of learners that might be really overwhelming. And I also want you to think about that for some learners, receiving praise is a demand. I'm gonna say that again. Receiving praise is a demand because receiving praise is a social interaction. And for some of our learners, social interactions are challenging and hard and effortful. So praise is not a reinforcer yet, and that's okay. We can work on it, but we definitely don't wanna be having 5 pieces of praise for every piece of direction then. That's gonna be too much work. Too much response effort. Take data to see where you're at. I think it's good to know where you're at regardless if you're trying to hit this 5 to 1 or not, because sometimes we have very little acknowledgement of how much praise we're giving because we're just in the motions of our day. So take data. You also really want to ensure that your praise is genuine and specific. So it's, it's real. It's not fake. It's not like, "Angela!" Like really, you're giving some real praise. So think about if the 5 to 1 ratio is a good fit for your learner. And then talk to your team about ensuring that your praise is specific, immediate, and explains the value.
