Angela Verges/Contributor

My 10-year old son believes the Uno Reverse card helped him improve his behavior.

Let me explain.

My son’s teacher left in February to accept a position at another school. In the interim of finding a new teacher a substitute was placed in the class for approximately four weeks. My son said his behavior changed with the substitute teacher, Mrs. Drake. “It was like a game of Uno, and Mrs. Drake played the Reverse card. My behavior got better.”

When I asked my son how Mrs. Drake helped to changed his behavior, he had difficulty explaining, he said, “It just changed.” I’m sure it was a combination of things such as teaching style, classroom management techniques, personality, etc. The bottom line was that he made a connection with this particular teacher (and didn’t realize it). Kudos to Mrs. Drake.

If my son the Jr. Philosopher wants to use the analogy of the game of Uno to describe his change of behavior, I will follow his lead. I had a thought, perhaps other cards from the deck could also be used for behavior modification.

I came up with a few guidelines and presented them to my son. “How about using the Skip card to minimize arguments?” If one of us feels an argument (debate) brewing, we verbally say, “I’d like to Skip this conversation for now.” We do eventually have to discuss the issue, but it is postponed until both parties have a cooling off period. If a behavior occurs that requires discipline, the Draw Two card comes into play. This means a time out is needed.

As a form of positive reinforcement, we introduce the Wild card. Each time that my son makes it through a day without any behavior concerns at school he receives Uno. At the end of the week if he receives Uno five times, he is awarded a Wild card. This card can be used for a special reward (ice cream, a visit to the dollar store or some other small token).

Since we were using this experience as a teachable moment, I threw in a little philosophy of my own. I told my son that in “real life” you have to play the hand that you’re dealt. His response was, “What?” I told him that things will not always go the way that he thinks they should. “Your attitude will determine the outcome of a situation,” I said.

“Okaaaay,” he said with a puzzled look.

I had to go back to the Uno card analogy to explain. “If you’re in a situation where someone wants to argue with you, use the Skip card. You don’t have to keep the argument going.” I encouraged him to use the Reverse card to redirect his behavior when he felt someone was “annoying” him. The light bulb came on and he experienced his aaaahhhaaa moment... understanding.

If your child is in need of an attitude adjustment or behavior change, just get out the Uno cards and slap the Reverse card on the table.

Angela Verges is a writer and mother of two. She can be reached at awritersdream41@yahoo.com.