Do rewards kill kids' motivation?

Every parent who has ever offered "ten minutes of screen time if you finish your homework" has had the same worry: am I teaching my kid to learn, or just to chase prizes? It's a fair question, and the research has a clear, specific answer that is more useful than either "rewards are bad" or "rewards are great."

Do rewards actually kill motivation?

They can, in one specific situation: when you reward a child for something they already enjoy doing on their own. In a classic 1973 study, preschoolers who loved drawing were promised a certificate for it. Afterwards, those kids drew less in free time than children who got nothing or an unexpected reward. The prize had quietly turned play into work.

This is the overjustification effect: when an external reward becomes the reason to do something, a child's own reason can fade. A 1999 review of around 128 studies found the same pattern — tangible rewards that are expected and tied to simply doing a task tend to reduce intrinsic motivation for that task.

So should I stop using rewards?

No — because the same research shows where rewards don't backfire, and where they genuinely help. The effect is strongest for activities a child is already drawn to. For a skill a child avoids or finds hard, there is no intrinsic motivation to crowd out yet, and a reward can supply the push to start. The damage comes from the design of the reward, not from rewards themselves.

Here's what the evidence points to:

Reward design	Effect on motivation
Paying for something the child already loves	Can reduce their own interest
Rewarding effort or finishing a hard task	Neutral to positive — gets them started
Unexpected rewards ("surprise, you earned this")	Little to no crowding-out
Praise and positive feedback	Tends to increase motivation
A fixed "do X, get Y" contract, forever	Highest risk of long-term dependence

How do I use rewards without wrecking a child's drive?

Reward the effort, keep it a little unpredictable, and plan your exit from the start. Praise what the child did ("you stuck with those tricky ones") rather than who they are ("you're so smart") — feedback aimed at effort supports motivation, while praise for being clever can make kids avoid hard things (Mueller & Dweck, 1998). Then fade the reward as the skill gets easier.

Try it at home

1. Pick a skill your child avoids, not one they love — spelling practice, not the drawing they already do for fun.
2. Reward the showing-up, not the score: three nights of practice, not "only if you get them all right."
3. Keep some surprise in it. An unexpected treat after good effort carries far less risk than a standing contract.
4. Name the effort out loud. "You kept going when it got hard" teaches the thing you actually want to grow.
5. Plan the fade. Agree from day one that the reward is training wheels: once practice feels normal, it comes off.

Where Brainimo fits

Brainimo is built around exactly this research. A child earns stars from short learning games and from the missions and chores you set, so effort at home, like practice and chores, counts too, not only right answers in a game. You choose and stock the rewards yourself in the Prize Counter and approve every one, so nothing is handed out behind your back, and you can dial rewards down or switch them off as a child's own momentum takes over. The point isn't to bribe a kid into learning forever; it's to make the first weeks easier, then get out of the way. You can see how it works on the Brainimo homepage.

Used this way, rewards aren't the enemy of motivation — a permanent, expected, love-it-already contract is. Recognise effort, keep a little surprise, and fade it out, and you get the best of both: a nudge to start, and a child who keeps going on their own.