Reinforcing Eye Contact
Eye contact is when two people look at each other’s eyes. It is a very important part of social interaction. This is explained in Module 1 (Expected Development). Eye contact usually develops in the first few months of life. It does several important things. First, it lets the two people know that they are paying attention to each other. Second, it helps a person know how the other person is feeling. Third, it is needed for the development of “joint attention” (which was explained in Module 1 – Expected Development). These all help in learning language and communication skills.
In the next clip, watch how this teacher stops the swing and waits for the child to make eye contact before giving him another push. In this way, eye contact is the “on” switch for the swing and the push is the reward for making eye contact.
In the next clip, watch as another teacher reinforces a little boy for looking at her right in the eyes. His reward is getting help to make a little ball shoot across the room. See how the teacher waits for him to make eye contact and then immediately makes the ball fly.
Here are a few more nice examples of teachers using fun activities to work on eye contact. Watch carefully. See how the teachers pause to wait for eye contact before going on with the activity. They are working on eye contact, but they are also making learning fun!
In the next two clips, watch how the teachers use music as a reinforcer. They pause and then wait for eye contact before going on with their songs.
Here are a few last thoughts about reinforcement and prompts. It is important for a child to learn that earning a reward depends on doing specific things. This is called contingent reinforcement. When a child learns that she needs to do a certain thing to get a reward, she will be more likely to try hard to do that thing.
Learning that getting a reward depends on doing specific things takes time. Some children learn this more quickly than others. Earlier, we talked about the importance of building cooperation (children doing what they are asked to do). For some children, this can be hard to learn. If your child does not want to be helped or seems upset when you prompt him to do the things you have asked him to do, you may want to watch Module 6. That module discusses more ways to build cooperation. Then come back to the Module 2 Review.