Positive Reinforcement Behavior: Blossom Rosebud

Running Head: REINFORCEMENT WHEN DEALING

Positive Replacement Behavior

A) Reinforcement when dealing with behaviors, is a stimuli that increases the likelihood of a certain behavior to reoccur, reinforcement typically occurs after the behavior that is supposed to be reinforced. There are two types of reinforcement, Positive and negative, both of them serving the same purpose but providing the results in different means. Positive reinforcement occurs when a behavior is being reinforced by "rewarding " the desired behavior. Examples of positive reinforcement include giving a child praise for cleaning his room, taking the child out for a special dinner for getting a good report card, or letting a child get a new toy for being good on a
shopping trip, these examples are not all inclusive, but can give a short look at how positive reinforcement can be used. (Todd, 2010) Negative Reinforcement on the other hand occurs when something already present as a result of a behavior is removed. (Wheeler & Richy, 2010) Examples of negative reinforcement include but are certainly not limited to, a child 's vegetables being taken away after screaming; the carrots being taken away is the reinforcer which is strengthening the screaming behavior, buckling your seatbelt to avoid buzzing sound in car; the reinforcer is the sound being taken away, and the behavior is putting on a seatbelt, or taking a pain pill to relieve a headache; the reinforcer is the relief of your headache and the behavior is taking the pain pills. As an educator it is important for me to be able to use both positive and negative reinforcement effectively to help my students show and obtain the proper behaviors. When teaching it can be very easy to implement positive reinforcements in the classroom. "According to Psychology of Classroom" some commonly used positive reinforcers used by educators are giving praise, special attention, reward tokens, or stickers. (Anderman & Anderman 2009)The same text also list some of the common negative reinforcements as taking away homework, canceling a chore, or withdrawing an aversive stare. When providing positive reinforcements for my students, I would use a technique used by the school that I am currently volunteering with, the sticker reinforcement. When the students in the class show positive behaviors, such as, paying attention in class, turning in homework, or working diligently with group members, they will receive a Gold star. When students at the end of each month have the required amount of Gold stars they are invited to a special Gold Star Lunch where they are recognized for their efforts and are given awards and rewards. The reinforcer in this scenario are the Gold Stars and the Gold Star lunch, and the behavior being reinforced are the positive behaviors that students are expected to display. On a more personal note, when trying to reinforce positive behavior for a single or a small group of students, I believe that giving a student special attention or praise would be the most effective in making a behavior become more habitual. For instance , when I give praise to a student, who is notorious for not turning in his homework, for turning in his homework I am hoping that the reinforcer, my praise, will make his turning in his homework a more habitual occurrence. It is also very possible for me to use negative reinforcement to help build positive behavior in my students. I could promise my students that I will cancel a planned quiz if the class turns in their homework the next day. The reinforcer in this case would be the canceling of the quiz, with the behavior of the students doing and turning in their homework.
B) Last week my group and I created a mock IEP, FBA, and PBS plan for a fictional student, we named Blossom Rosebud. Blossom, a student at Yellow Bell High school, has been diagnosed with both Depressive Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder; she also has several academic weaknesses which contribute to the disruptive behavior which will hopefully be corrected with the replacement behaviors will we try to implement throughout the year. The behaviors that we will specifically address in this plan include her shutting down and becoming non responsive which causes her to not do her school work and quite frequently her homework as well; and her verbal aggressiveness towards school staff when she becomes highly frustrated with either her academic struggles or when being redirected. Blossom also has a problem with being out of the instructional area without permission. It is our hope that with the replacement behaviors laid out in this plan, our student Blossom Rosebud will become a positive, productive, efficient member of the student body.
Goals: It is our hope that by the end of the school year that our student, Blossom Rosebud, would replace her disruptive behaviors, with behaviors that are more positive, productive and if need be informative.
We hope her new behavior is positive, because if her new behaviors are more positive, she should be much happier and prone to repeat the good behavior; more productive so that she is able to stay on task with her work and hopefully maintain good grades; and finally more informative so that if she does run into an issue she will feel more comfortable in letting a staff member know in a positive way what her needs are, so that those needs can be fulfilled as soon as
possible.
Objectives: We have many objectives to help obtain our ultimate goal, of eliminating or severely reducing the unwanted behaviors. We have each of the goals listed below, next to each listed goal is a brief description of how that goal will be obtained and what positive behaviors we will teach Blossom to replace the negative behavior with. * Reducing the amount of "Shutdown Episodes":A shutdown episode is when Blossom becomes so frustrated, she refuses to do any work or talk to any person. When this behavior occurs we will try to encourage Blossom to either continue doing her school work (or homework should she be home) or to talk to a staff member in a calm manner. When the student continues to refuse to do her work or to talk, but is civil the staff member is encouraged to let her cool down, before trying again to coax her. It is important for staff to give blossom recognition for keeping calm, but remember to try to encourage her to speak or continue her work. When the student does cooperate by talking or by doing the work, the staff member is encouraged to give positive praise to the student in a manner that is both appropriate and true. It is our hope that with praise, Blossom will feel comfortable addressing staff when she feels frustrated and despite her academic frustration will feel confident in moving on with a difficult problem because she knows that her educators care. * Eliminating Verbal Aggressiveness: When Blossom become verbally aggressive towards another student or staff member, it is important to note that a staff member shouldn 't become verbally aggressive with her.
As a team we are going to use both positive and negative reinforcement to help replace her verbal aggression with a more calm behavior. When Blossom first starts to escalate, the educator should try to calm her down, when Blossom does calm down it is important that the educator thanks her for calming down and then proceed with solving whatever problem she is having. If you see or sense a situation where Blossom has the tendency to become verbally aggressive towards a student or a staff member, try to remind her that if she displays that behavior she will have consequences to face, but if she doesn 't display those behaviors she can avoid the unwanted consequences. It is our hope that by stopping the escalation before it happens, by reminding her what will happen if she becomes aggressive will help reinforce the behavior we do want to see from her before it becomes a problem. It is also our hope that if she does become aggressive, that given her recognition for calming down quickly will help her become calmer quicker when future episodes
erupt. * Leaving Instructional Area: When Blossom leaves the instructional area, the educator should encourage Blossom to return to the instructional area, if she refuses to return to the instructional area the educator should remind Blossom of the consequences of not following instruction and should inform her that if she does comply she won 't have to face the consequences. When she does comply, the educator is encouraged to give praise to Blossom for complying to the rules.
It is our hope that with the implementation of these replacement behaviors, the student Blossom Rosebud will be able to display more desirable behaviors, while at the same time becoming a more effective and efficient student

References
Anderman, E., & Anderman, L. (2009). Psychology of classroom learning: An encyclopedia. (Vol. 2, pp. 737-739). Detroit MI: MacMillian.
Wheeler, J., & Richy, D. (2010). Behavior management: Principles and practices of positive behavioral supports. (2 ed., pp. 274-349). Columbus OH: Pearson Education.
Todd, L. (2010). Increasing approriate behavior and teaching alternative behaviors. Retrieved from https://lc.gcu.edu/learningPlatform/user/users.html?operation=loggedIn
(Todd, 2010)