1. Review Positive reinforcement

a. Immediate
b. Consistent
c. Rewarding
d. Age appropriate
e. Social or paired with social praise: eye contact, name, smile, touch and label behavior being reinforced
f. Finding new reinforcers: watch the child, ask the parents, child choice.
g. Premack Principle: If an activity occurs more frequently than another, it will be an effective reinforcer for that other activity.

2. Schedules of reinforcement

a. Continuous reinforcement (CRF): desired response is always followed by a reinforcement.
b. Intermittent reinforcement: response produces a reinforcement only occasionally
c. The specific way in which reinforcement is programmed to occur as a result in the number of responses, time between responses is called a schedule of reinforcement.
d. The schedule of reinforcement determines the rate and pattern of responses.
e. A fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement is one in which reinforcement is forthcoming after a specific or fixed number of responses occur. ( FR 5) In this case usually after the first response the remaining responses of the requirement are completed rapidly with minimal hesitation between responses, then there is a post reinforcement pause after the reward. All or nothing pattern of behavior.
f. A variable ratio schedule of reinforcement is one in which reinforcement occurs after a variable number of responses are made. It is expressed in the average number of responses required for reinforcement. (VR25) Real world, no pause.
g. A variable interval schedule (VI) is when the reinforcement is available after a differing period of time. It generates a consistent but slow pattern of behavior.
h. A fixed interval schedule occurs when reinforcement is available after a fixed period of time. (FI) It creates a scalloped pattern of response. (deadlines)

3. Extinction

a. Extinction: Withholding of reinforcement when a response has previously been reinforced.
b. Generally creates an immediate increase in behavior, increase in negative emotions, aggressive behavior. There is then a decrease in behavior governed by the schedule of reinforcement maintaining that behavior.
c. In general intermittent schedules of reinforcement makes the response more resistant to extiction.

4. Shaping: the method of successive approximation

a. Through the proper use of positive reinforcement, entirely new responses and behavior sequences, which the child has never been seen to exhibit before, can be brought into their behavioral repertoire.
b. Steps:

1. Determine the behavior you would like the child to acquire and maintain. (Terminal response)
2. Identify an initial response related to the terminal response along some meaningful dimension.
3. Reinforce the initial response until it occurs regularly, then differentially reinforce another response that more closely approximates the terminal behavior.
4. Continue this procedure until the terminal response occurs and reinforce it directly.

c. Examples from rehabilitation
d. Homework: Use shaping to develop a new behavior by a family member.

Click here for ... Communication and Language Intervention in Young Children with Autism