Extinction in behavioral science means that a behavior stops occurring or becomes extinct. Extinction happens because the behavior no longer “works” to get a reward, so there is nothing to strengthen the behavior and keep it going. Extinction also happens when the child is not allowed to behave poorly and escape something they do not…
Have you ever played the toy drop game? Maybe you know it by the highchair game? If you’ve ever spent time with an infant, you have definitely been at least an unwilling participant in this game. The oh-so-cute baby drops the toy and you, without thinking too much about it, lean over and pick it…
Have you heard of descriptive praise? By the name alone, you can probably guess that it involving praising your child in a descriptive way, but how is descriptive praise different than any other type of praise? Let me give you an example. Your kid says, “Mom! Watch me!” and then jumps from the diving board…
Time out is probably the most often used behavior modification technique, which is great because it is effective and it is proven to work, but it is also just as often done wrong and people wonder why they don’t get results. Time out is not just putting someone in a place–like a room, or in…
What is joint attention? Joint attention is the ability to share a common focus on something (people, objects, a concept, an event, etc.) with someone else. It involves the ability to gain, maintain, and shift attention. Joint attention serves as a referencing tool that uses shared gaze (visually focusing on the same thing) and/or gesture…
Socially mediated is a term used in learning that simply means that reinforcement is gained through the efforts of someone else. In this clip, Joey and Chandler’s access to food is socially mediated. They are relying on someone else to provide them with the great stuff that they want. Not all reinforcement is socially mediated,…