How to practice reinforcement with kids?

Children don’t come with an instruction manual for behavior according to the situation, place, and time. Especially with toddlers, it becomes very important for parents to inculcate good values and behaviors at an early stage of their lives. However, parents often find it difficult and confusing to determine the right way to impart good habits/behaviors in young minds. In this article, we will discuss some of the methods of reinforcement that can be practiced with your child.

In a concept called “operant conditioning,” B.F. Skinner explained how voluntary behaviors are learned through the effects of pleasant or unpleasant consequences for responses, that is, a person is likely to do or avoid a behavior if he/she know the consequences of it. The idea solely depends on “If I do this, what’s in it for me?”

This theory leads us to the concept of reinforcement.

What is Reinforcement?

The word reinforce itself means “to strengthen”, that is to say, reinforcement is any event or stimulus that is followed by a response, increases the probability of that response (a habit or a behaviour )  to happen again. In simpler terms, reinforcement helps a particular behaviour to occur more frequently.

Advantages of Reinforcement

Motivation: When we reinforce a behaviour or response, it will keep an individual motivated to practice that behaviour.

Consistency: Reinforcing a behaviour every time a desired response is achieved leads to consistency in repeating that behaviour again and again.

Here, we will be discussing two types of reinforcements as follows:

• Positive Reinforcement
• Negative Reinforcement

What is positive reinforcement?

In simple terms, positive reinforcement is a method used to establish a pattern of behaviour involving by addition or experiencing a pleasurable consequence or outcome after the desired response. Example: getting money for working is a perfect example of positive reinforcement, as a person is getting paid (consequence) for working (desired behaviour).

How to practice positive reinforcement with kids?

Positive Reinforcement is proven to be a very effective parenting method. Kids tend to finish work or learn a behaviour more effectively if they are provided with a reward after a desired response. Here are some of the examples for the same

• Making their favourite dish after they finish their homework.
• Taking them to a park if they clean their room.
• Clapping and cheering them every time they solve a math problem!
• Complying with a request if they ask you politely

Thus, linking behaviour with pleasurable rewards will instill a drive in your child to repeat that behaviour again. However, rewards are not always supposed to be materialistic. A reward for a child can be as simple as patting their back if they do good and letting them know that you do pay attention and appreciate the right things.

What is negative reinforcement?

Negative Reinforcement is not what it sounds like. Rather, negative reinforcement also helps to strengthen a response or behaviour. To break it down for you, negative reinforcement is the removal or escape from an unpleasant outcome. Example: wearing a sweater to avoid catching cold. In negative reinforcement, a person tries to avoid a negative outcome.

How to practice negative reinforcement with kids?

Parents often confuse negative reinforcement with punishment, but that is clearly not the case here. Negative reinforcement has been proven to be very effective and helps learn a behaviour faster. Children will often get a work done to avoid the negative consequences. Here are some of the examples for the same:

• Studying really hard to avoid failing in the exams.
• Putting one’s toys at the right place after playing to avoid getting them lost or misplaced.
• Doing their homework on time to save their television privileges.
• Eating healthy to avoid falling sick.

Thus, negative reinforcement is all about subtraction and is not really “negative”.

These two methods of reinforcement can be used by parents as they are proven to be useful and practical, and also avoid negative or harsh techniques like punishment because they cause emotional damage to the kids.

However, parents should not rely on any one method. It is important to switch between these two techniques as and when the need arises.

 

Dear Parents,

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