Despite all that we have learned about human behavior in the last fifty years, it is surprising how much the process of reinforcement is still overlooked. For example, developmental psychologists like Mary Rothbart have been making enormous progress on understanding the development of self-regulation.
But developmentalists still tend to think more in terms of some sort of natural emergence of a behavior than in terms of the way that the environment shapes behavior. I think that makes it harder to see the practical steps we can take help children learn self-regulation. So here is a description of the shaping of self-regulation behaviors through reinforcement.
Georgia Layton, is the Director of the Early Education Preschool, which provides classrooms for children with developmental disabilities as well as typically developing children. (She is also my wife!)
I recently asked her to explain to me how she helps children develop the behaviors that developmental psychologists like Mary Rothbart have come to call effortful control, and more generally, self-regulation. The patience, subtlety, and precision of the process makes me fearful that I cannot describe it clearly. But here goes.
She has been working with a young child who would tantrum when adults asked him to do anything. He has a very short attention span, never staying with any activity for more than a moment. Whenever an adult would ask him to do something, he would fall to the floor and complain loudly. Her whole strategy has been to prompt and reinforce his cooperation. But you have to watch carefully to see how she reinforces tiny instances of cooperation.
For example, one day she followed him throughout the classroom, doing whatever he wanted to do—following his lead. But wherever they went she would prompt little bits of cooperation. If he wanted something she would ask for little bit of cooperation before he got it and then reinforce his cooperation by giving him what he wanted (but always being careful not to ask for so much that he would stop cooperating). For example, if he wanted the water turned on, she would ask him if he wanted to do it or wanted her to do it. He might say, “Me do it.” If so, she might say, “Oh, okay. Say ‘Me do it please.’” She then would lift him up so he could turn the water on. In an effort to increase his time spent on activities, she would play with him, prompting little bits of waiting (e.g., for her to hand him a puzzle piece) and praising him when he did.
She also worked on his developing a bit of planfulness. For example, if he was done with his drink and looked at the Playdough, she might say, “You are ready to do some playdough.” If he said yes, her helping him to move to that activity reinforces that tiny bit of planfulness involved in saying yes to his next activity.
As they walked to the Playdough table, she might then say “Remember to walk.” And if he did, she would praise him.
If she had not thought to remind him to walk and he started running, rather than correct him, she would use it as an occasion for emotion coaching. She might catch up to him, and say “Oh you are really excited! Our rule is walking feet.” As he started to walk, she would praise.
Once they got to the Playdough table, she might ask a questions as the activity unfolds: “Do you want sit here or there?” “Do you want red Playdough or blue?” “Do you want to play with Jimmy or Mary?”
Every time he answers one of these questions he is, in a tiny way, cooperating. And he is learning to think about what he is going to do. Thinking before doing is a key aspect of effortful control.
In the process, she is teaching him to be more mindful. He is learning about his feelings, about what he is looking at, what he is experiencing—as well as oh so many concepts, like red, blue, and up.
Over the course of three days, he made great progress. When she came in on the second day, he was walking rather than running. Other teachers were getting him to cooperate more in all kinds of activities. He was able to play with other children for growing lengths of time. On the third day he was a bit more likely to refuse to cooperate, but it was clear he was on his way to developing the skills he need to learn and cooperate.
An untrained observer who watched this process might find it hard to see the subtle ways that Georgia was prompting and reinforcing little bits of cooperation, patience, and sustained attention or how she was reinforcing behavior other than getting upset. What emerges over time is “effortful control.”
Tags: Good Teaching, Reinforce Behavior