Applying Reinforcements to Life
By Grace Jimenez
EDI 600 Psychological Foundation of Education
School of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
May 30, 2009
I am a mom of three boys I couldn’t get through a day without using behavior reinforcements. How would I get them to do any chores, eat dinner, or finish homework? As an example, over the summer I purchased a chore chart with magnetic stars. Each child had a column with their chores like cleaning their room (I needed to explain what that meant at first – pick up everything off the floor put it in its place), make their beds (fix their pillows so they looked nice I did the blankets), brush teeth, get dress by themselves (the baby just needed to take off his pajamas) and all the boys would run every morning to get a star. After five stars they would get an ice cream sundae on Friday. Well that worked for about three weeks. Then the ice cream wasn’t so exciting anymore. So I would nag and threaten but no one cared. I then changed my reinforcement, I took away Wii privileges on the weekend if they did not reach five stars and all three boys had to get five stars or else no one got Wii. Let’s just say they tried to negotiate, they tried crying and whining but I stuck by my plan. The first weeks were easy I barely had to remind anyone.
After a month they started to get lazy again. I had to exercise my threat and there was no Wii in our home or at anyone else’s home for one weekend. They begged for it all weekend, they begged for extra chores to earn Wii back, but I wouldn’t give in, after that they knew I meant business. So now they do their chores and if one brother starts to get lazy they help him get that star so they all can get Wii. Am I the best parent for always negotiating with my boys? Probably not, but I don’t believe in time out, mutual negotiation (especially at their age), or corporal punishment so what do I have left? It is tough as a parent or teacher to get young children to follow rules they really don’t understand or care about.
I believe behavior reinforcements are extremely practical in school, in most cases. I am sure there are children out there that simply are not fazed by anything you do, but I believe most children would be motivated to do good in a classroom with some negative reinforcements, some positive reinforcement (but not too often), and rarely but also important, punishment. Most children look forward to earning rewards. So we should use this to our advantage. We just need to make the reward or privilege important to their age group. My son enjoys receiving a silly eraser as a reward for listening attentively or following instructions correctly and timely. It’s amazing how happy he gets, he floats home. If his class doesn’t get their Fun Friday because someone upset the teacher, his weekend is wrecked.
I also believe that reinforcements are great preparation for their life outside of school. You don’t work you don’t get paid. You don’t follow the rules you get tickets. You know eating too much will make you overweight but you do it anyway, now guess what you gained all this weight. The only trick is to figure out what your class finds important or switching it up so they get excited about something new every few months.
Long Island University, C. W. Post
May 30, 2009
I am a mom of three boys I couldn’t get through a day without using behavior reinforcements. How would I get them to do any chores, eat dinner, or finish homework? As an example, over the summer I purchased a chore chart with magnetic stars. Each child had a column with their chores like cleaning their room (I needed to explain what that meant at first – pick up everything off the floor put it in its place), make their beds (fix their pillows so they looked nice I did the blankets), brush teeth, get dress by themselves (the baby just needed to take off his pajamas) and all the boys would run every morning to get a star. After five stars they would get an ice cream sundae on Friday. Well that worked for about three weeks. Then the ice cream wasn’t so exciting anymore. So I would nag and threaten but no one cared. I then changed my reinforcement, I took away Wii privileges on the weekend if they did not reach five stars and all three boys had to get five stars or else no one got Wii. Let’s just say they tried to negotiate, they tried crying and whining but I stuck by my plan. The first weeks were easy I barely had to remind anyone.
After a month they started to get lazy again. I had to exercise my threat and there was no Wii in our home or at anyone else’s home for one weekend. They begged for it all weekend, they begged for extra chores to earn Wii back, but I wouldn’t give in, after that they knew I meant business. So now they do their chores and if one brother starts to get lazy they help him get that star so they all can get Wii. Am I the best parent for always negotiating with my boys? Probably not, but I don’t believe in time out, mutual negotiation (especially at their age), or corporal punishment so what do I have left? It is tough as a parent or teacher to get young children to follow rules they really don’t understand or care about.
I believe behavior reinforcements are extremely practical in school, in most cases. I am sure there are children out there that simply are not fazed by anything you do, but I believe most children would be motivated to do good in a classroom with some negative reinforcements, some positive reinforcement (but not too often), and rarely but also important, punishment. Most children look forward to earning rewards. So we should use this to our advantage. We just need to make the reward or privilege important to their age group. My son enjoys receiving a silly eraser as a reward for listening attentively or following instructions correctly and timely. It’s amazing how happy he gets, he floats home. If his class doesn’t get their Fun Friday because someone upset the teacher, his weekend is wrecked.
I also believe that reinforcements are great preparation for their life outside of school. You don’t work you don’t get paid. You don’t follow the rules you get tickets. You know eating too much will make you overweight but you do it anyway, now guess what you gained all this weight. The only trick is to figure out what your class finds important or switching it up so they get excited about something new every few months.
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