QUESTION:
The only discipline program that I know of that refers to “elicited” consequences is Marvin Marshall’s Discipline without Stress. Can you explain what he means by “elicited” consequences?

RESPONSE:
According to the dictionary, “elicit” means “to draw out.” Elicited consequences are consequences that are drawn out FROM the child. Dr. Marshall’s third and final phase of the Raise Responsibility System is Guided Choices. This phase is used only when a child CONTINUES to misbehave AFTER they have clearly understood that what they are doing is unacceptable.

In a discipline situation, where the adult feels that a consequence is necessary, Marshall suggests that the teacher will be most effective by ELICITING a consequence FROM the student, as opposed to IMPOSING a consequence ON the student. He suggests using a guiding process to do this because some students (especially young ones,) may need help in finding a suitable consequence for their behavior—hence the term, “Guided Choices.”

To be most effective, Dr. Marshall suggests that an elicited consequence should be agreeable to the adult and should also fulfill the following three requirements:

1. The consequence should be related to the incident.

2. The consequence should be reasonable.

3. The consequence should be related to growth.  (In other words, it should be something that will help the student learn or become more mature in some way.)

 

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Posted In: Guided Choices
posted On: July 23, 2008: 10:10 am: By Kerry Weisner
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