I have posted my feelings prior to this about the power of positive reinforcement with regard to shaping your child's behavior and it appears that many police departments are jumping on this bandwagon when it comes to getting children to wear bike helmets. Many police departments around the world are providing children with certificates for treats from some of their favorite places if they are caught wearing their bike helmets while riding. Dairy Queen, McDonald's,Cold Stone and Chic-fil-A to name a few.
Having worked at schools where on occasion the resource officer could be found handing out citations for not wearing a helmet, I don't think that it had an effect on whether children wore their helmets or not. It could have been ineffective because it happened only once or twice a year or because getting a piece of paper was not enough of a deterent for most of the children. What I do know is that after a few days, the children at my school reverted back to their old habit of not wearing a helmet.
I couldn't find any statistics about how these positive reinforcement programs are working, but I just have to think that they are having an effect. What child wouldn't wear a helmet if they had the possibility of getting an ice cream cone out of it.
I really hope these programs are working because during the summer months bike crashes are the leading cause of emergency room visits among children. Having flipped over my own handlebars and landed on my head a few years ago, I will tell you that I was sure glad that I had a helmet on. Other then a few cuts and scraps, I was able to brush myself off and get right back up on my bike. This is something I don't think would have been possible without the helmet.
Note: that if you have been in a crash with your helmet on, it is probably time for a new helmet. It was probably damaged in the crash and has out grown it's usefulness.
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