Reinforcement vs. Punishment: Where To Draw The Line
Being a parent is one of the most challenging yet rewarding jobs ever. Raising a child is no easy act, after all; it requires a lot of care, attention, support, and patience among many other things. In the end, your mission is simple: to shape your children into good-natured people.
Someone like that is one who knows the difference between right and wrong. So how can you teach that? There are two popular methods: reinforcement and punishment.
However, more often than not, parents confuse one for the other and fail to use the right method to correct negative behavior in their children. So where should you draw the line?
First, let us understand the two:
Reinforcement
Reinforcement is the method of increasing the chances of a certain type of behavior. This can be done by either providing a stimulus (called positive reinforcement) or removing it (called negative reinforcement).
For example, your child eats their vegetables, and for that, you give them a cute little sticker to collect – that positive reinforcement, since you’re encouraging your child to eat healthy by rewarding them. On the other hand, if your child is stubborn, then you might let them eat something else only if they eat five bites of broccoli. This is negative reinforcement because they are encouraged to eat healthy by removing it as a permanent option.
Both kinds of reinforcement, if used well, are great ways to encourage good habits in your children. It helps them realize what is right and what is wrong on their own so that they can make a more conscious effort to be better people.
Punishment
Punishment is the opposite of reinforcement; it is a method used to decrease the chances of a certain kind of behavior. This can also be done by either providing a stimulus (called positive punishment) or removing it entirely (you guessed it – negative punishment).
For example, if your child hit someone while playing in the park, you would verbally warn them to not do it again in front of others – that is positive punishment; here, the scolding is the stimulus given for bad behaviour, so that it doesn’t happen again. However, if they still persist, then you might take them away from the play area or take away their toy for a while. This is negative punishment because you’re removing something of value so that bad behaviour doesn’t happen again.
Of course, any extreme kind of punishment never works. Even so, punishment in moderation helps children learn how their actions always have consequences, and so be more careful to avoid doing bad habits.
Where Is The Line?
Typically, reinforcement is encouraged among parents. Children are impressionable, and so removing stimuli instead of providing it might affect their mental development negatively. Reinforcement helps encourage good behavior, and so helps children develop good habits more easily.
However, reinforcement done excessively is never good. Too much of encouragement – either positive or negative – does more harm than good. A child should understand that some actions have consequences, and so should be prepared to handle such a thing. Therefore, slight punishment techniques help children avoid bad behaviors.
Nurseries in Jumeirah Park resort to positive shaping methods; Oakfield Early Learning Centre has professional practitioners, who consistently reward good behavior in children with things like words of encouragement, while simultaneously keeping them away from bad behavior. This way, they stay focused on becoming better people.
Both reinforcement and punishment – when done in moderation – help parents shape their children into happy, healthy adults.
