Differential Reinforcement In Children

In behavior modification, differential reinforcement is referred to as rewarding only the desired responses/behaviors; meaning that all other behaviors and responses are ignored. For instance, when a child throws a tantrum at the supermarket, demanding for a candy bar, his parent can choose to ignore this behavior instead of reacting to it. As this attention may be perceived as rewarding to the child. At the point when the child understands that having a tantrum results in a non-response from his parental figure, he may attempt an alternative behavior for requesting a sweet treat.
As the child approaches his parental figure and ask for a sweet treat respectfully, his guardian may react to this behavior by saying kudos, praising him/her, yes now, you may have a piece of candy; this may be seen
as positive by the child and the behavioral deficit is reinforced. .
On the other hand, antecedent control considers the effect of the physical or potentially social condition on a specific behavior. By manipulating the conditions, one can alter an individual behavior; therefore, certain behaviors are reinforced only when they are carried out under the right conditions. For instance, when the traffic signal is green, it means we can go. When it turns’ red, we stop. The antecedents have to occur prior to the behavior, so the behavior is dependent on condition setting.
When increasing a behavioral deficit, using differential reinforcement in conjunction with antecedent control succors learning to appear at a faster rate.
By manipulating the setting, we can help to prompt certain behaviors, sort of like reminders, what should we do when the lights are red? We stop etc. Within differential reinforcement, we can succor upsurge the desired behavior through rewarding only the desirable responses to the setting triggers. This helps to eliminate all other behaviors that may have been previously rewarded. So, one is prior to the behavior is done, like a reminder, the other is rewarding subsequently to the right behavior is done.
One example would be implementing in a home setting where the therapist and the parents would teach their child to respond appropriately instead of having tantrums and screaming while the parents are busy or out with the family. The therapist and parents could then implement a method where the child is taught to wait for a prompt (such as holding up a juicy container, pointing to it, and say ju, juice) and reward only the child repeat ju, juice. Rewarding the child’s behavior once he/she are able to articulate the word
juice.