Instructional Control and Reinforcement

instructional control refers to the process of:

technician delivers an instruction and the client complies with instruction

Robert Schramm’s 7 steps to earning instructional control

1. reinforcer control

2. the principle of pairing

3. “saying what you mean, meaning what you say”

4. positive vs. negative reinforcement

5. an ever-increasing variable ratio of reinforcement

6. priorities, priorities, priorities

7. show your client that not following instructions consistently/engaging in problem behavior will not result in reinforcement

what does reinforcement do?

increase the future likelihood of a behavior

Step 1: reinforcer control

the technician must have control of the reinforcers

Step 2: the power of pairing

you hold a great power over your client’s progress and development through your attitude and actions

aim to make all your interactions with the client as FUN as possible

Step 3: contingency: “saying what you mean, meaning what you say”

building trust that you mean what you say

Step 4: positive vs. negative reinforcement

Reinforcement is the key element to all ABA interventions! Reinforcement BUILDS behavior. It is constructional approach to behavior change

unintentional reinforcement (casually)

Unintentional behavior change occurs without deliberately using a procedure. This occurs very frequently in the real world and in the contrived environment

intentional (on purpose)

occurs with deliberate procedure use

motivating operation (MO)

an environmental variable that temporarily changes the effectiveness of a reinforcer (or punisher) and the behavior related to that reinforcer. They change the value of the reinforcer (or punisher)

breaks

taking a break from a demand or work setting or escaping a situation/environment can be very reinforcing for a child

step 5: the increasing variable ratio of reinforcement

once the client is consistently responding to your instructions, and you are consistently reinforcing every correct response, we can move on to making things more unpredictable

step 6: priorities, priorities, priorities

it’s good to always know which items or activities will function as reinforcement

step 7: only following instructions = reinforcement

remember to continue to enforce the following notions regarding following instructions, and not following directions is no reinforcement