Positive Behavior Support, Part 4: Reinforcement

In this episode we'll get into the most important part of a behavior plan, reinforcement.  Learn what it is and what it looks like.
 
 Remember, the more you know about special education practice, particularly how Positive Behavior Support is supposed to work, the better off you will be at IEP meetings and in being a full member of the team.
 
 Here are a couple of links to more information on reinforcement.  

An explanation why reinforcement in a behavior plan may not be working. 
 (https://theresponsivecounselor.com/2022/12/your-positive-behavior-reinforcement-intervention-will-probably-fail-if.html)

Sample of a reinforcement survey: https://www.lausd.org/cms/lib/CA01000043/Centricity/domain/361/positive%20behavior/tier%20ii/t2%20resources/Student%20Reinforcement%20Survey.pdf

Thanks to  soundimage.org for the free access to the AI generated music used in this podcast (https://soundimage.org/) 

Transcript

Reinforcement

Welcome to part Four in our positive behavior support series.  If you haven’t done so, listen to Parts 1-3 so you can learn how this episode fits in. 

Of all the components of behavior plans that I see most often underappreciated, it’s reinforcement.  Reinforcement in the context of PBS can be defined as “a form of ‘Operant Conditioning’ which is behavior manipulation through external forces”.    Reinforcement Definition

Let’s start with our old friend, the ABCs of behavior, which, if you remember stand for antecedent, behavior and consequence.

Let’s go back and look at John, the 3rd grader we met in the previous episodes, who has ADHD who is qualified for special education services under the category or Other Health Impaired, consistently calls out questions and answers in class without raising his hand.

For John, both raising or not raising his hand is the B part of the ABCs.   John will experience a consequence based on the behavior.  If he raises his hand appropriately, he may get reinforced by the teacher praising him, or calling on him, that is the consequence.  This is a positive reinforcer in that something happened, there was a real response.

Conversely, if he calls out, the teacher may simply ignore John.  This is planned ignoring, and is the absence of a response, thus it is a negative reinforcer.

However, It’s important to note that both negative and positive reinforcers can be considered as “good” or “bad” from the perspective of the student being reinforced.

Does that make sense?  Positive reinforcement means there is a planned reaction, and negative reinforcement is the removal of something already present and is also planned.  What they have in common is they increase the chances of the behavior occurring the future, in this case, John gaining attention in an appropriate way.

Let’s look at another example. If Marie works on a non-preferred task for 5 minutes, she earns a star on a chart that leads to free computer time.  There was an action that provided something, which is positive reinforcer.

A positive reinforcer can also be passive or environmental.  When Marie finishes her work, the classroom rule is students can read a self-chosen book quietly at their desks.  Marie loves to read.  Because this is part of the classroom routine the reinforcer is environmental but is still a powerful one. 

Again, negative reinforcement is the removal of reinforcement.  An example of a “good” negative reinforcer would be to allow Marie to skip the next time she has to do a non-preferred task for having done the current one. 

The complexity of thought that these concepts require while you are working with a child makes the importance of following behavior plans closely paramount.  A behavior plan, when well-conceived and written, details the results of an expert thinking through things like positive and negative reinforcement, along with all of the other concepts we have or will cover.

Let’s take a more concrete look at this idea of reinforcement, and get away from the more technical pieces, while still using them as a framework.  But I want to briefly talk about something that many people ask when it comes to reinforcement.  Isn’t this just another way of using bribery?  What’s the difference and why does it matter?        

Reinforcement and bribery would be the same except for the timing of their use being the critical difference.  Reinforcement is a planned response to a specific behavior displayed by the child.  Bribery takes place after the chance for effective reinforcement has taken place.  Think of this situation, Simone tends to escalate (primarily yelling, crying) when asked to perform a non-preferred task.  Reinforcement would take place while Simone is calm and has not escalated and she is rewarded for this.  Bribery would take place after Simone has escalated, and is an attempt to roll back the behavior, which is usually not successful.

So why is reinforcement so important?  We have to look a bit more subjectively to see why.  A child needs to know how to behave in way that conforms with classroom expectations, a behavior plan lays out how to get there.  The child can even have a crystal-clear idea of what the behavior they are supposed to display looks like.

But there is the old behavior to consider.  The old behavior works, the child would not have adopted it if it didn’t, it succeeded, albeit messily, to get the child’s needs met.  There needs to be a powerful motivator to change.

I would argue the motivator, the reinforcement, is not the key to the change.  The key is when the reinforcement, along with the other parts of the BIP, work to help the child internalize the behavior.  This is not just a word, think for a minute about the feeling of really getting something at a deep level, like adopting a new habit and it finally becomes natural.  That’s the level we are talking about.

The new behavior needs to become the “go to” behavior in the face of the stimuli that prompted the old behavior, it needs to become an automatic reaction instead of something that has to be prompted.  Think of it like learning to read, where once you had to laboriously sound out words, eventually you did it without thinking.

What does reinforcement in a classroom look like?  There are probably as many forms as there are students.  It all depends on what the need it that is being addressed.  For someone who needs attention, it can be just that, extra time with the teacher, or a counselor, or the school’s custodian…For students who need to escape, it could be the freedom to independently run a message to the office, or banking break times to be used when needed…or for a student who needs a tangible item, maybe a favorite item to be used when earned…or for sensory needs it could be “add on” input other than what is ordinarily needed, like movement, or a certain texture.

What about John?  What would reinforcement look like to him?  How about the teacher makes sure John knows the answer to a question, or to the way a math problem is solved.  Before he has a chance to do so, they call on John to answer the question or come to the board to solve the problem.  The teacher does this as part of John’s behavior plan, to provide a way to recognize John.  Another idea could be for John to spend some of his free time helping out in the office.  He loved going there when he used to get in trouble for classroom problems, so this is a good reinforcer.  Think for a minute about what I just said.  John used to get sent to a place he really liked, and got attention for, by getting in trouble. You can start to see how we turn the idea of how we react to behaviors on its head through PBS in this example. 

In terms of a behavior plan, it is critical that the reinforcement be planned, consistent, and varied as the student wearies of a reinforcer.  

What types of reinforcers depends on what the child needs.  A child who needs escape can be reinforced through planned “escape” opportunities.  A child who needs attention should get planned attention and so on.

Reinforcement surveys are good ways to see what a child wants.  A link to a sample one is included in the notes.  

Specific reinforcers work well until they don’t. Just like anyone, students with disabilities get tired of the same old thing.  It’s important to switch up reinforcers regularly so they don’t get old.

A last item to discuss in our brief discussion on reinforcement is the idea of using multiple levels of reinforcement.  This means that a child may get a different reinforcer for different levels of success on a task.  For instance, Simone may get a 5-minute break during her least favorite subject for really handling a moment of stress well, and a 2-minute break for doing it a bit less well, and so on.  As you can imagine this becomes complicated pretty quickly, so most BIPs don’t have this level of reinforcement.

We will look at the importance of attitude when providing reinforcement for a behavior or lack of in another episode, but keep in mind that the way you reinforce is just about as important as when you reinforce.  You know your students and you know what makes them happy and what sets them up for failure, so just keep this in mind.