ABA 101 Part 3

Have you ever come across a situation where a child doesn’t listen to you, no matter what type of punishment or negative consequences you place on them? Or have you ever seen a child start losing interests in earning some of their most favorite activities, toys, or foods? Today we’re going to talk about reinforcements versus punishments and what type of strategy may be the most helpful for your child. Please note that I’m not a child psychologist nor a family therapist. I’m a board certified behavior analyst that is here to talk to you about behaviors and how we can shape and develop desirable behaviors in our children. If you enjoy our podcast, please make sure to follow our podcast channel and follow us on our Facebook page and Instagram @whattheautism.

In today’s episode, there will be some technical language and vocabulary that is specific to ABA, but be patient with me, as I’ll be breaking down what each of these terms mean and present to you some everyday examples that may be helpful in you understanding a little more about ABA.

Now let’s start with “what is reinforcement?”

Reinforcement occurs when a behavior INCREASES because of a consequence of either adding or removing something from the environment. By definition, a reinforcer INCREASES behavior. Remember that consequences is not a negative association like a punishment. We talked about consequences in episode 6 where we described consequences as anything that occurs after a behavior takes place. So for example, let’s say that Jenny is instructed by the teacher to go to her desk to complete her worksheet. Jenny starts crying, whining, and throwing her toys around the classroom. Because the teacher is busy working with the other kids, she puts Jenny on a time-out until the teacher is ready to work with her. Now, based on all the things we talked about in previous episodes, what do you think will happen in the future when the teacher tells Jenny to complete worksheets? Jenny will continue to engage in tantrums and inappropriate behaviors in order to get out of completing her worksheets. So during the next couple days, she continues to exhibit these inappropriate behaviors. This “time out” now functions as a reinforcer in this situation. Why? Because these inappropriate tantrums and whining behaviors have increased. If you need a couple seconds to digest this concept, I suggest you take a pause here before moving on.

Now digging a little further into reinforcements. There are 2 types of reinforcements: Positive and negative. Don’t let the word negative get you to think that it comes with a bad connotation. It’s simply referring to whether a stimulus has been presented or removed.

1) Positive Reinforcement: A behavior occurs. A stimulus such as a person, an object, etc is presented immediately following the behavior. The probability of that behavior occurring again in the future increases.

Examples:

• Bob finishes his math homework and afterwards he gets a piece of gum. A piece of gum is the stimulus that is presented. And because Bob is motivated by gum, the probability of him completing his math homework to get more gum increases.
• George sits appropriately in circle time and exhibits listening skills by answering questions about the story. This earns him 10 minutes of his favorite activity: blowing bubbles. The activity of blowing bubbles is a stimulus that is presented and because George is motivated by this activity, the probability of him engaging in circle time in the future increases.

2) Negative Reinforcement: A behavior occurs. A stimulus is removed immediately following the behavior. The probability of that behavior occurring again in the future increases. Let me remind you, that just because the word...