CONDITIONING CHILDREN DEBATE

CONDITIONING CHILDREN DEBATE

1. AT HOME

   • To improve behaviour it should be through positive punishment such as a 'naughty step' as it is something they dont want.
   • To maintain positive behaviour, positive reinforcement would be used such as praise and rewards to reinforce behaviour.
   • Gill 1998 asked parents to encourage chore completion by the payment of pocket money (positive reinforcement) or postponement of pocket money (punishment). the researcher concluded that these strategies were successful because children ended up perfomring 20% of the household chores.

2. HOME

   • To improve bahviour it should be through positive punishment such as a 'naughty step' as it is something that they dont want.
   • To maintain positive behaviour, positive reinforcement would be used such as praise and rewards to reinforce behaviour.
   • Gill (1998) asked parents to encourage chore completion by the payment of pocket money (positive reinforcement) or postpone the pocket money (negative punishment). the researcher found these strategies to be successful as children ended up performing 20% of the household chores.
   • Conditioning techniques are unlikely to be effective in real life as even fully dedicated parents are likely to slip up.
   • Morris (2014) claims that the 'naughty step' can have long term emotional effects. children do not have the same ability as adults to reflect on their own behaviour and verbalize their feelings they experience. without empathy and help from their feelings, the naughty step may ultimately have a negative effect on development.
   • Techniques such as the 'naughty step' are frequently criticised by childcare experts.
   • Link (2010) reports interview data from a child and family therapist who suggests that behavioural modification techniques are important but it is crucial to get the extended family on board as well so the techniques are consistent and effective. This suggests children are given time out or calm down rather than use it as punishment.

3. IN SCHOOL

   • Education systems majorly uses operant conditioning techniques to control the behaviour of children by using gold stars and merits (positive reinforcement) to reward good behaviour.
   • McAllister (1969) looked at inappropriate talking in high school English classes and found that the increased use of 'teacher praise' and 'teacher disapproval' led to improve students performance. In a control condition there was no decrease.
   • LeFrancois (2000) suggests that classical conditioning can be used to improve students performance. He proposed that teachers should maximize the pleasant stimuli (such as attractive wall displays, nice smells and laughter) and minimize the unpleasant stimuli (such as shouting and negative comments). This means students have more positive feelings about the work environment and their behaviour and/or academic performance will prove.
   • Montessori education believe that the rewards and punishments advoacted by conditioning techniques are actually harmful to a child's development and that they ingerer with a child's internal drives to learn
   • Lepper et al (1973) conducted research that supports this criticism. Nursery children were asked to draw some nice pictures when the children were promised a reward they spent half as much time drawing as children who were not promised a reward, suggesting that their own motivation had been destroyed by the expectation of extrinsic rewards.
   • Lewis (1995) conducted observations of Japanese elementary schools and found the use of reward systems or praise was rarely used, but also that the children seemed to be internally motivated.
   • Kohn states that rewards actually cause people to loose interest in whatever they were being rewarded for doing. He suggests not using the tools of traditional discipline, such as rewards and consequences. He believes that it is essential that we overcome a preoccupation with getting compliance and instead involve students in devising and justifying ethical principles instead.

4. PEERS

   • A child's peers are children who are in similar age and development.
   • We may start off being influced by our parents, but when we move to nursery and later to school, the influence of our peer group starts to grow. In order to reduce the negative sanctions of the peer group (such as exclusion and criticism) and increase positive sanctions (such as praise and accpetance), children imitate the behaviours and actions of their peers. We are condiitoned by our peers.
   • Peer group influence may not be desirable ones.
   • Brickert et al (2006) found that children as young as 10 years old were more likely to try smoking if members of their peers group smoked. This demonstrates that a child's need for positive reinforcement from their peer group is not always healthy.

5. VULNERABLE GROUPS OF CHILDREN

   • Psychologists use conditioning techniques with various psychological and medical conditions.
   • Lovaas (1087) developed applied behavioural analysis (ABA) to increase the frequency and quality of social interactions for children with autistic spectrum disorder.
     • Target behaviours might include language difficulties or problems with self-care. One-on-one therapy shapes the behaviour of the child; initially the child is rewarded for most behaviours but over time the rewards are reduced and are only issued if the behaviour is close to the ideal target behaviour.
   • The treatment is mainly supported by Lovaas (1987) research and this contained many methodological flaws including not randomly allocating children to be part of the control or experimental group. This means any conclusions drawn about the effectiveness of the treatment may not be entirely valid.
   • Very intensive, 40 hours a week, expensive
     • Anderson et al (1987) found that 20 hours a week was enough.
   • Only treats symptoms, some believe the undeseriable behaviours may remerge one reinforcement is removed.
   • Campbell and Lutzer (1993) found functional equivalence training virtually eliminated tantrum and property destruction in an 8 year old with Autism. It also improved his communication skills. They were able to train his mother to delivever the training to her son.
   • Soares et al (2009) conducted research that used self-monitoring activities as an alternative behaviour that not only decreases self-injurious behaviour (SIB) in a student, but also improved classroom performance. A computer programme monitored academic work and helped the student become aware of his behaviours and increase his attention to his academic work. The student had a 92% rate of work completion and only a 1.5% severity rating for his SIB.
   • Aman et al (2002) used drug therapy in the treatment of children with learning difficulties to manage challenging behaviour. They compared the drug risperidone to a placebo and found the group who received the drug showed significantly greater improvements in their challenging behaviour compared to the placebo group.