Principles of Reinforcement

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Reinforcement is used to increase and strengthen student engagement and targeted behavior. enCORE lessons provide scripts that give examples of specific verbal praise that can be used to immediately reinforce student desired behavior. Specific verbal praise is critical because it tells students exactly what they did to receive the praise. For example, if a teacher says, “good job…” and doesn’t specifically state, “…touching your nose,” the student could confuse her “good job” as reinforcing his pencil tapping or leg kicking behavior. Also, remember that immediate reinforcement following a correct or desired behavior is the strongest as this provides immediate feedback to your student about their performance.

While specific verbal praise is appropriate and necessary for all students, it is important to remember that many students require tangible objects with a heavy schedule of reinforcement to truly increase or maintain new skills. Especially during skill acquisition, or when we are teaching new skills to our students, provide reinforcement and feedback frequently!

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Zero and Four Second Delay Task Analytic Instruction Model – Lead – Test