REINFORCEMENT: MAKING IT WORK Elaine Mellotte, BCBA ABA Clinical Program Manager The Complete Advantage
Aims Provide an understanding of reinforcement Examine factors that make reinforcement more effective
Reinforcement Reinforcement occurs when the consequences that follow a behaviour result in more of that behaviour in the future. Put simply, any behaviour that is followed by something good results in more of that behaviour.
Positive Reinforcement Behaviour Followed By Gets Something Good Increases The Chances For MORE
Positive Reinforcement Sally hates making her bed in the morning. Her mother pleads with her all the time to make her bed and has even made her a visual reminder for her room. It is not getting any better. One day Sally asks her mother for money for a concert ticket. Sally s mum agrees to give her one dollar every day she makes her bed without being asked. Sally is quickly making her bed every day.
Positive Reinforcement Making Bed Followed By Money Increases The Chances For MORE
Negative Reinforcement Behaviour Followed By Remove Non-preferred Increases The Chances For MORE
Negative Reinforcement A few students in Mrs. Dee s classroom have been handing in incomplete homework assignments. Mrs. Dee decides to implement a new rule in the classroom. Every student who hands in completed assignments from Monday to Thursday will be exempt from homework for the weekend. Mrs. Dee starts getting more and more homework assignments handed in.
Negative Reinforcement Complete homework Followed By No homework for weekend Increases The Chances For MORE
Josh Josh is a ten year old boy with ASD who attends mainstream classroom for Art and PE classes twice per week. PE is going great and Josh takes part in all of the activities with ease but his teachers can only describe Art as a disaster. As soon he enters the room he whines and complains and has even thrown paint at his EA. The other kids love to help the teachers pack away so they have told Josh this can be his job if he tries the activities. They have tried offering him everything the other children like but nothing is helping. He just does not respond to reinforcement.
What happened? Josh has little to no input into the reinforcer and is not motivated by what his teachers are choosing. Reinforcement only works if the person wants what s being offered! Solutions Allow Josh more choices Sometimes this can be as simple as asking! Observe in free play situations Develop a choice board
Megan Megan, a 4 year old girl with a diagnosis of ASD receives 15 hours of ABA per week. Recently Megan had a change of therapists. Her new therapist believes that Megan is receiving too much reinforcement and that this is cutting into her learning time. Megan s new therapist has started cutting m&m s in half and allowing Megan only ten seconds on the ipad when she finishes her work. Megan s learning has stalled and her parents reported some concerning behaviours. What happened?
What happened? Megan is not receiving enough reinforcement. The effort involved in completing her work is not worth only ten seconds on the ipad. The frequency and magnitude of reinforcement matter. Solutions Increase reinforcement!!! Token economy systems can be a great support Fade reinforcement slowly
Amy Amy s family have worked really hard to teach her to use the toilet. In just 4 months, Amy has gone from wearing nappies to requesting the toilet using sign-language. Amy was given a lolly every time she used the toilet during her toilet training. Since she has done so well, it was decided she no longer needed to be given lollies. Very suddenly, Amy started to have accidents again. Her family are very upset about this sudden turn around.
What happened? Lollies were removed too quickly. It s important not to stop reinforcement just because it has worked. New behaviours need to be reinforced consistently every time they occur. As the behaviour becomes stronger, we need to slowly and carefully fade the reinforcement. Solutions Rather than removing lollies completely, start to offer them less often. First approximately every second time, then every 3 rd time and so on. Close monitoring of the skill is important when fading reinforcement.
Charlie Charlie is 6 years old and has a diagnosis of ASD. He attends mainstream school with the support of an EA where he has been doing very well. Charlie struggles to sit on the mat with the other children at school. After a couple of minutes sitting, he gets very distracted, lies on the ground and tries to leave the group. His teachers decided that they would give Charlie 5 minutes on the ipad at the end of the day if he sat nicely on the mat. Charlie loves the ipad and finds it very motivating. Unfortunately, this behaviour is not increasing.
What happened? Charlie is not given access to the reinforcer until hours after he has engaged in the behaviour we want to increase. The delay is much too long. Solutions Provide access to the ipad after the mat session As the behaviour becomes stronger, this can be faded to a more practical time Visual supports may be useful
Dylan Dylan s mum called a behavioural consultant for support in teaching Dylan to be more independent and to help out around the house. Mum and the consultant developed a list of 3 simple tasks for Dylan to complete every day. When they explained to Dylan that he could have 30 minutes on the computer once he had finished all of his tasks, Dylan replied that s ok, Dad lets me go on the computer every night anyway and happily walked away leaving his mum and consultant feeling very silly!
What happened? Dylan can have the computer regardless of whether he completes his tasks. Why work for something you can have for free! Solutions Find a more motivating reinforcer. Change the rules so that the computer is only available once the tasks are completed. Important to discuss this with other people in Dylan s life.
Other points to consider Focus on the behaviours you want to see more of. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Have fun!!!!