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Effective Rinforcement
POSITIVE REINFORCERS ---> POSITIVE RESPONSES
To ensure the effectiveness of the reinforcers you use with your child:
- Prepare a list of things that the child likes in order to make sure that the chosen reinforcer will work effectively with him / her.
- Restrict using edible reinforcers, whenever possible.
- Make sure that the reinforcer used (especially edible ones) is not forbidden due to any allergic tendencies or diet therapy.
- Present the reinforcer to the child in tiny amounts to avoid his satiety which can, in turn, make him lose interest in the presented reinforcer.
- Each time you present a reinforcer to the child, do explain to him why he is given that reinforcer –even if you have doubts that he might not be able to completely understand what is being said e.g. if you present a picture of a car and a picture of a pen and you ask him, “Give me the one that we write with”, and the child responds correctly, give him the reinforcer and while giving it to him, saying, “Well done, I will give you this piece of candy because you gave me the pen that we write with!”
- Grading the reinforcer given to the child, based on:
- Level of difficulty of the required task
- Level of dependency while carrying out the task
- Response latency (the time that lags between requesting the task from the child and his/her response)