What's wrong with punishment?

• Defining Punishment
• My History

Defining Punishment
I've recently learned there are three major parts to the function definition of punishment.  (1) A certain behavior first takes place, (2)  immediately a consequence takes place and (3) because of that particular consequence for that particular behavior, the behavior in the future has a great chance of not reoccurring in the future.  People usually would confuse what the term "Punishment" means anyways.  For one thing, our society out of the world of behavior analysis, see punishment as a way to "hurt" someone who had done something "bad".  For example, society would "punish" an individual who stole a car by placing them in jail.

But you are using the punishment term in BA always remember to break it down into the three parts above.  Because you have to understand the "function".

My History
Wow...my history with punishment.  Punishment was highly used in my household as a child and in many generations before me.  It was seen and still is in my culture as the most important thing in raising a child.  If you don't hit your child your immediately for something they have done wrong you are looked at like you are not "doing your job" as a parent.  However, what about some children, they get hit so often?  And they are known as the "bad boy with a steal butt"?  Did punishment work? No!  Why?   Because the child is still engaging in the inappropriate behaviors.  So obviously it isn't quite effective.  This boy is my son.  And because of this...I steer away from this type of behavior modification majority of the time.  Because, as easy as it may seem to implement (such as time out), the consequences of it are very complex.

To much can damage...

• Chart
• Satiation
• Response Cost

Chart
Currently working on a visual chart with daily task that me and my son can use to communicate on what needs to be done to help with each task transition.  I believe this will help greatly in communicating what is expected every day.  In addition, on the chart I will be able to keep tract of this tokens and will able to visual show his reinforcers (so that he knows what he's working for).

Satiation
I've recently learned how important this is.  The value of the dollars given to my son can be determined by how much I give him per day.  For instance what happens if he earned 20 a day?  The value of the dollars would decrease, plus he would be able to abuse the use of the reinforcers.  In turn, the reinforcers will not be as potent as they should be.  In order for a behavior to be affected by a reinforcer: (1) It has to be something the child really values.  Reinforcers solely depends on the each child and (2)  And the availability of the reinforcer has to be restricted.  In other words, he/she can't get that reinforcer for anywhere or from anybody else.  If so, it will be hard to get them to work for it.

Response Cost
I have decided to use punishment.  I basically will be taking away a dollar each time he has to be in time out in order to immediately decrease an unwanted behavior.  But I will have to plan this carefully.  Because I don't want to have to send him to time out for everything.  And he shouldn't have all this tokens taken away, because that will weaken the reinforcer.  So I will choose the top main "socially significant" behaviors that I will be using time out for only.  More about this will be discussed later.

Trying something new...

• Changing Routine Problems
• Frustration
• Focus
• Token System

Changing Routine Problems
Like I had mentioned in my previous blog post.  I needed to change the way me and my son interact at home.  There would be daily fights just to get the usually tasks done (e.g. fighting to stop playing with his toys to go get ready for bed).  This has been a nightmare, the house is in chaos with daily screaming, foot stomping to straight out saying "NO!" and not budging.  So I decided that I needed to come up with a token system.  A way to reward him for good behavior.

Frustration
Before I move on, there is something that really...really crawls up my pants with annoyance in the social aspect when I mention what's going on with my son at home with my friends and family members.  Especially, those who are child-free and have no experience in being a caregiver to a child (a caregiver is anyone who is in charge of overseeing a child in the absence of the parent/or guardian, such as teachers, after-school care counselors, bus driver attendants, etc.).  I dislike comments such as "You spoil him, he just needs a good beaten." or "You are not to FIRM...you need to be FIRM!".  Look...sometimes no matter how "firm", how much beaten you give a child it doesn't work!!  I am not going to beat my son black and blue to release the so-called "devil" out of him!  All children are different...and guess what?! Mine is different!  Moving on...

Focus
One thing I have learned lately, is to look out for certain behaviors.  I need to take the time and look out for the undesired behaviors that I see that stands out and is seen as a problem.

• Yelling "NO!"
• Stepping on toys purposely
• Making loud repetitive grunts
• Running off (out the door, into the streets, across the room)
• Hitting/ Slapping
• Biting
• Crying
• Singing & Talking really loud
• Banging on the table

These are just a few.  But lets look at them.  As I look down the list...first I think about which is the most harmful? Of course it would be the biting, hitting and the occasional running into the streets.  My second question is now, which of these are just age appropriate? Meaning for the fact he is a kid, does a typical 7 year old conduct in these behaviors?  It's ok if it's not harmful and age appropriate.  Like the singing & talking really loud and maybe because of his disability the necessity to make loud grunting noises.  Well the whole point of looking at my son's behaviors and then evaluating the priority of each, will have me and creating a plan to help my son with his behaviors.  And to make sure what I am doing is actually healthy for him.  In other words, I am not trying to change him just because I don't like it.

Token System
So the token system is basically away to reinforce good behavior by acknowledging them and rewarding the person for that behavior.  I thought this would be a great way to start.  First, it's something very simple for him to understand and something I can implement right away, as I work out the details of the rest of the plan.  Basically, I make a list of all the desirable good behaviors that my son can get tokens for: Such as saying "thank you, please, your welcome, yes mommy, etc." to having him respond to me immediately after being called to completing daily task such as homework and brushing his teeth.  In my next post I will copy and paste the first actual token system I had created.

Shaping....

• Behavior Change
• Behavior Modification Therapy
• Death & Other Things To Understand

Behavior Change
I've been focusing on working on my son's disruptive behavior.  Sometimes though, I feel a little skeptical of everything his teacher says of him.  I feel like he exaggerates.  Maybe I'm in denial.  I still can't think of my son as be so out of control, disruptive, uncontrollably hyper and dangerous to his peers.  He is only six years old.  However, with that said, I am trying to shape his behavior at home with little knowledge on how to do so.  I have some knowledge of Behavior Modification, since I am a psych major, but still does not qualify me.


Behavior Modification Therapy
I have gone ahead and contacted a specialist in this area approximately a month ago.  I've seen someone twice.  Two different people for almost the same thing.  One person interviewed me and my son at our house, I assume it was for Psych Evaluation as our neurologist has suggested (prescribed).  And the second person is supposed to be his therapist. My expectancy from this experience is to gain some helpful knowledge on what I can do to shape my son's behavior, but I would say the last time I have interacted with his therapist was a month ago.  I will contact her soon and see what she has been up to.  She said that we will meet at the house once a month but she will be observing him at different settings (such as his school and his after-school care program). 

Death & Other Things To Understand
Taking about his after-school care program, recently a counselor has passed away.  He was very young and I am still heartbroken and can't really get his image out of my head.  However, I haven't had the guts to tell my son, and in a way don't know how.  How will he understand that someone died?  It's so hard for me to tell him that when he goes to school today he can't not walk or stand on his desk.  I tell ask him if he understands...but he just repeats what I told him yesterday about listening to the teacher and says "I listened".   But obviously he didn't.  I know my son isn't "stupid".  But I really want to find a way to see if he understands what I'm saying...people say I treat him like he's dumb...but yet I don't get feedback from him that proves he understands what I'm saying. 

How to deal...

• Difficult Temperament

Children can develop different types of temperaments.  There are generally three types.

1. Easy Temperament
2. Difficult Temperament
3. Slow-to-warm-up Temperament

And according to to one of my course textbooks (that I am reading at the moment), 40% of children in a study fell into "Easy" Temperament.  Which is usually characterized by easygoing, positive mood children who tend to adapt well most of the time to changed routines.  Where as the opposite would be the "Difficult" Temperament child (10%) who displays more aggressive behavior with frustration to change routines and adaptation to meeting new people.  And "Slow-to-warm-up" Temperament (15%) would be more in the middle...like the "social butterfly". (Schaffer, D. R. (2009).  Social and personality Development. Belmont: Wadsworth)

Well, I notice and new for a while that my son falls into the category of children with the profile of Difficult Temperament.  He is a very active child, who has social interaction problems when dealing with other kids and usually is fussy, irritable and have numerous temper tantrums.

Well, my reactions to some of the situations were usually showing that I don't tolerate such behavior by yelling.  Oh my gosh did I yell so much!  I honestly thought that bad behavior had to be corrected by spanking and yelling to let them know it's wrong. 

But I was noticing my frustration how he would develop the aggressive behaviors that I would display.  I knew this was not working.  So I kinda "gave-up" on the yelling and decided to try in most situations to just talk to him.

Well looking more into my course textbook, I was surprised to find this is the way to interact with Difficult Temperament children.  It seems that when you talk to your child instead of spanking, yelling and screaming or preaching to your child.  You can teach your child how to react in such intense situation by displaying calmness and "explaining" to them in children terms what is wrong and "show" them the right way to do things.

Because, in order to cease one habit, you must replace it with another.  A child or any human being as a fact react this way when it come to learning behavior.

Great finding..now it's my turn to do more research and implementing these techniques and see how things go.