Children often seek to gather information based on the topic that interest them the most (Baldwin & Moses, 1996, p. 1934). Children ask questions because they are seeking to learn more about the world. Answering these questions will encourage children to seek out further information, thus expanding their cognitive abilities. Children want to gather information that will further assist them in exploring what the world has to offer. The ability for children to acquire skills comes from their learning indirectly (without being directly taught), and in part from the need to explore.
Whether you care a caregiver, educator, or parent it is important to support your child’s need for information. In applied behavior analysis, one way we support this need is through delivery of reinforcement. Reinforcement gives the child a reward (a reinforcing stimulus) that is usually desired, following the emission of an expected behavior. This results in that child engaging in the behavior more frequently in the future.
Reinforcement is often successful when the reward is delivered immediately following the emission of the behavior desired. So, in the example above, the boy ask’s his mother why he is loud. The reinforcement is the mother responding to the question that was asked. The mother in order to effectively encourage the behavior to occur again, should respond as soon as possible. Following the mother’s response, the boy may ask further questions. Therefore, the reinforcement increased the future frequency of the behavior (asking of questions).
Reinforcement occurs whether you are thinking about it or are just going about your day. It occurs anytime a behavior is emitted, and it results in that behavior occurring more in the future. Reinforcement is used in our day to day lives. It directly relates to the way we interact with other people. We are more likely to interact with someone if we have been previously reinforced in the past.
Therefore, increasing your child’s interactions with you can just take some delivery of reinforcement. Selecting the reinforcer has to come from what your child prefers. It is also the acknowledgement that what is reinforcing now may not be reinforcing later. For instance, your child may want the Megaphone now and ask questions about it, but later on when you offer that child the Megaphone again, he or she may no longer show interest. This can be because your child only wanted to learn more about the Megaphone, and now seeks to learn about something else.
Having the awareness that reinforcement is all around you, will increase your chances of using it more often. Seeing it work, will also motivate you to use it more. Take the time to practice delivering reinforcement throughout the day. Deliver it when your child engages in an expected behavior. You can even choose a specific behavior that you want to reinforce. Remember to deliver reinforcement consistently. Through your consistent delivery, you can observe your child’s behavior improve and/or occur more often. That is the best part about reinforcement. So, let this New Year be filled with questions answered, and more answers sought by your little ones because of your utilization of reinforcement.
Happy New Years!
References
Baldwin, Dare A., and Louis J. Moses. “The Ontogeny of Social Information Gathering.” Child Development, vol. 67, no. 5, 1996, pp. 1915–1939. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1131601. Accessed 29 Dec. 2020.
Comments