Module 2 Vignette: Using Prompts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nBella was two years and 6-months-old when her mother started to work with her using behavioral teaching techniques. Bella had already learned to imitate a little on her own. Her family was happy to see that she waved goodbye back when her auntie waved at her. But she waved with her palm facing herself. Her mother called it, \u201cBella\u2019s backwards self-wave.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bella\u2019s mother wanted to teach her how to wave the right way. As she learned more about prompting, she tried gentle physical guidance. She set up a few practice sessions with Bella\u2019s father. Her mom held Bella and her father stood by the door facing them. With one hand on the doorknob, he said, \u201cBye-bye!\u201dsmiling and waving. Before Bella had a chance to return the wave using the \u201cbackwards self-wave\u201d her mother gently turned her hand so that her palm was facing her dad, helping her to wave back. Her mom was using a physical prompt<\/strong>. Then her dad gave her a quick tickle before walking out the door and closing it behind him. Then he quickly popped back in, and they did it again. They made a game of it. This gave Bella a chance to practice about six times during each practice session. Bella seemed to enjoy the waving game and giggled every time her dad popped back into the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis seemed to work well. But, whenever her mom didn\u2019t use her physical prompt, Bella went back to her backwards self-wave. Then her mom had an idea. She got Bella\u2019s older brother Gabriel in on the game. Gabriel stood just a little bit in front of his mom and Bella and put his hand where Bella could easily see it. He faced his dad and waved to him. When they played the game, Mom focused Bella\u2019s attention on Gabriel\u2019s hand. After a few days of doing this fun little routine a couple of times a day, Bella was starting to hold her hand the right way on her own. So, in addition to mom\u2019s physical prompt, Gabriel was using a \u201cmodel\u201d prompt<\/strong> \u2013 that is, he was showing Bella what to copy (imitate).<\/p>\n\n\n\nReinforcement: The Cornerstone of Behavioral Teaching<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nFirst, we want to explain some of the most basic and important ideas about how children learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The single most important idea is that of rewarding behavior that you want to teach or that you want your child to do more often. Most of the other teaching methods that we will explain depend on this basic idea: Reward the behavior that you want your child to do more often.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nLet\u2019s take an example. Let\u2019s say we\u2019re trying to teach Susie to wave goodbye when another person waves goodbye to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susie knows how to wave, but she doesn\u2019t do it very often. So, you decide to work on teaching her to wave goodbye more often. You begin by making sure that whenever Susie waves to someone, the other person responds with enthusiasm. That person could give Susie a big smile or praise her (Nice waving!). The person might even give Susie a little tickle. If you are holding Susie when she waves, you can give her a little squeeze or tickle, along with praise. You might say something like, \u201cYay, you waved bye-bye!\u201d or \u201cWhat a big girl waving bye-bye!\u201d Then quickly give the child a little tickle or maybe spin her around if she likes that. The point is that whenever someone waves good-bye to Susie, and she waves back, the result is a reward for her! Over time, when somebody waves bye-bye, she will be more and more likely to wave back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the following clip, watch how the teachers reward a little boy for waving.<\/p>\n\n\n