Reinforcement
Occurs when a stimulus (event) change immediately follows a response and that behavior will occur more frequently in the future.
There are 2 types of reinforcement: positive and negative reinforcement.
For example, the child sits in his chair and works nicely on his assignments. The teacher praises the child and as a result, he sits in his chair and does his works more often. In this example, the teacher's praise is the reinforcer. When the reinforcer is presented, it increases the frequency of the behavior which is the child's sitting and working nicely on his assignment.
Here is a video example to help you see a big picture of positive reinforcement:
There are 2 types of reinforcement: positive and negative reinforcement.
- Positive reinforcement:
For example, the child sits in his chair and works nicely on his assignments. The teacher praises the child and as a result, he sits in his chair and does his works more often. In this example, the teacher's praise is the reinforcer. When the reinforcer is presented, it increases the frequency of the behavior which is the child's sitting and working nicely on his assignment.
Here is a video example to help you see a big picture of positive reinforcement:
To determine which reinforcer the child prefers to work for, first, you can ask the child/his parents or observe how he reacts with each thing you present . There are different types of reinforcer you can use: edible (candy, chips, etc.), sensory (tickle), tangible (sticker, squeaky toys, etc.), activity (board games), or social (hugs, praise).
To use positive reinforcement more effectively, remember the below points:
For example, the child gets upset and screams whenever he sees another child crying. To prevent this happen, whenever there is a crying child in the room, the teacher let the other child choosing a break card and let him go to the different room. Next time, when someone cries, he immediately pick the break card. Picking the break card removes him from the crying situation. Therefore, he will more likely pick the break card next time it happens.
Ethical consideration:
To use positive reinforcement more effectively, remember the below points:
- Use varied reinforcers so the child does not get bored of earning the same reinforcer and loses his interest on the task.
- Deliver reinforcer immediately after the target behavior occurs. That way, you can avoid reinforcing different behavior.
- Depend on the behavior you want to teach the child, you should choose different reinforcers. If the task seems difficult for the child to learn, you should use the most prefer reinforcer to keep him more engage in learning the task.
- First, you can reinforce every time the target behavior occurs. But when the child seems to perform the behavior more often and get better at it, you should adjust the reinforcement schedule, maybe deliver reinforcer to him every once in a while and not every time the behavior occurs.
- Negative reinforcement:
For example, the child gets upset and screams whenever he sees another child crying. To prevent this happen, whenever there is a crying child in the room, the teacher let the other child choosing a break card and let him go to the different room. Next time, when someone cries, he immediately pick the break card. Picking the break card removes him from the crying situation. Therefore, he will more likely pick the break card next time it happens.
Ethical consideration:
- To make the reinforcer more valuable to the child, you need to withdraw his access from that reinforcer for a while before teaching him the specific skill. This might become an issue if the deprivation states get more severe. Obviously, it is unethical if you do not allow the child access to food.
- For negative reinforcement, the prior event, which set the behavior off, can be a very noxious event and it cannot be considered ethical to present those prior event for the child.
- Another issue with negative reinforcement is that the presence of the noxious event can create behaviors that compete with learning the desired behavior. For example, you want to increase the child's social interaction. But when he is in the playground with his friends, he runs away instead of playing with his friends.