Pairing Praise with Reinforcers
For some children, praise or approval from parents, teachers, or other adults does not work as a reinforcer when you start out. That’s because the child doesn’t care enough about it. In that case, we give some small treats that a child likes while we praise her, or just after we praise her. By doing this we are pairing our praise with rewards that are already powerful. Over time, praise can become a good reward by itself. Then we can use praise as a reward to reinforce desired behavior and teach new skills.
This teacher is showing the little boy how to imitate (copy) her. Watch how the teacher praises him for imitating her and then, right away, gives him a small piece of a pretzel.
When she follows her praise with one of his favorite treats, she is pairing her praise with the reward. Over time, her praise will become a good reward all by itself. In the meantime, she is using the pretzel because she wants to be sure to reinforce the child’s imitation.
Now watch how this teacher praises a little boy for trying to put a puzzle piece into a puzzle board and then hands him a little piece of a favorite cereal right away.
The reason to show your child you are pleased with her and then quickly give her a small treat, is so she comes to see your attention as a reward in itself. You can pay attention to your child with praise, tickles, smiles or hugs. Over time, your attention will come to work as a reinforcer.
Of course, for some children, a parent’s praise is already a good reward. But if your child doesn’t yet seem to care about your praise or about pleasing you, be sure to praise her just before giving her a treat she likes, as often as you can. That way, over time, your praise will become a reward by itself.
Doing these things in the right order is important. Your praise should come first, followed quickly by the treat.
It’s a good idea to watch some of these videos more than once. Watch how the teacher gives the child praise and sometimes a treat, with the proper timing. If the teacher waited much longer, the child wouldn’t make the connection between her own action and the reward. If the teacher was too quick, the child might also not connect her own action with the reward. The ideal timing is about 1/2 second between the child’s action and the reward. But it’s too hard to try to get your reward exactly 1/2 second after what the child did – just watch several of the teachers a few times and see how they time their praise or other reward.
You might have seen that the teacher in that video clip praised the child with a lot of joy. One child may respond well to this kind of praise, while another child might prefer quiet and gentle praise. In the next clip, a teacher is working on eye contact and she is pairing her praise with bubbles. Notice how she pairs quiet, gentle praise with the bubbles, each time the child makes eye contact with her.
It is best to use different kinds of positive attention. You might shout “HURRAY” one time, and gently tickle your child’s chin with a feather another time. This will keep things interesting. It will also teach him to enjoy many types of positive attention.
Here are some ways to give your child positive attention:
Tickles
“Hip hip hooray!” or another cheer
High fives (the child claps his hand against yours)
Smiles
Hugs