Ball State University SPCE280
Discussion Board #6
Fall 22’
Scenario 3: During small group instruction, Sam pinches his teacher. She responds with the verbalization, ”Ouch, that hurts! Use nice hands Sam!”
In scenario three, I would hypothesize that is it Social Positive Reinforcement. Social positive reinforcement is implemented because there is another person involved(the teacher). From what is being told I believe that Sam’s function of the behavior is attention maintained. Being in a small group is already not 1:1 with just Sam and the teacher. So the reason for Sam pinching the teacher is to divert her attention from others. The teacher positively reinforced Sam’s behavior by saying “Ouch, that hurts!”. The teacher should have ignored Sam’s behavior completely, the verbally praised Sam once he was doing something appropriately such as sitting quietly, two finger tapping her for her attention.
