Allen Chapter 12

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Chapter 12
The Developmental-Behavioral Approach

Developmental and Behavioral
Principles: A Blend
• Historical influences
– Maturationists believe that development is
independent of experience.
– Constructivists say that is not entirely true.
There needs to be a match between
developmental level and experience.

Principles: A Blend (continued)
– The problem of the match
• Providing materials for children at the right time in
the right way is a concern for teachers.
• Materials should lead to rewarding experiences,
and children should feel proud that they did it
themselves.

– Learning from success
• Teachers break learning down into small steps and
reward the success of mastering the little steps.
• Children then are motivated to learn more.

– Environmental arrangements
• A prepared learning environment matched to each
child’s current skill levels.
• Materials and activities sequenced in small enough
segments to provide both success and challenge.
• Emphasis on learning through play and active
involvement with appropriate materials.
• Responsive teachers who serve as guides and
facilitators rather than instructors.

Behavior Principles and Practices
• Every child can learn
– Teachers need to believe that every child can
learn.
– There needs to be a responsive learning
environment.

(continued)
• Reinforcement procedures
– Behavior principles:
• A or antecedent that precedes a behavior
• B or behavior
• C or consequence that follows a behavior
– Negative reinforcement
• Strengthen behavior by removing an unpleasant
consequence.

(continued)
– Intrinsic reinforcement
• Feelings of accomplishment from completing a
task, discovering something new, or solving a
problem.
– Positive reinforcement
• A pleasant consequence for doing a behavior,
increasing its likelihood.
• Adult social reinforcement
– Children turn to adults to see how to react to behaviors.

(continued)
• Teacher behaviors that have a strong impact on
children:
– Verbal responsiveness
– Descriptive praise
– Physical proximity
– Physical contact
– Physical assistance
– Providing things that children want

(continued)
– Natural and logical consequences
• Natural consequences—occur without teacher
intervention.
• Logical consequences—set up by adults as results
to a child’s behavior.

(continued)
• Withdrawing or withholding reinforcers
– Taking away a desired object as a result of
behavior
– Teachers may
• Ignore behavior.
• Remove materials that are causing the behavior.
• Remove the child from the activity.

(continued)
– Incompatible behaviors
• Two behaviors that counteract each other cannot
be present at the same time.
• Example: walking and running cannot occur
together.
– Catch the child being good
• When the child is good, praise the child, increasing
the appropriate behavior.

Punishment
• Punishment stops a behavior for the
moment, but does not cause behavior to
change.
• Side effects of punishment
– Effects are undesirable. If you yell to stop a
behavior, you are modeling yelling. The
children begin to yell.

Punishment (continued)
• Discipline versus punishment
– Punishment stops a behavior for the moment,
but nothing is gained.
– Discipline guides the child to learn a new
response or behavior.

– Reminders, redirections, and reprimands
• Remind a child of the expected behavior.
• Redirect them to a different behavior.
• Reprimand with a verbal warning to stop a
behavior.

– Sit and watch
• Child sits at the edge of the play activity and
watches.
• Child learns consequence.
• Child learns appropriate play.

– Time-out
• Used as a last resort.
• All reinforcement is removed.
• Children do not learn what to do in time-out, just
what not to do.

Step-by-Step Learning
• Task analysis is breaking down a task into
small steps that can be rewarded upon
accomplishment.
• Builds confidence in the child to be
independent.

Step-by-Step Learning (continued)
• Observation and task analysis
– Teacher observes a child doing a task.
– Teacher sees when the child needs help.
– Teacher breaks the task down into small
steps for the child.
– Teacher rewards the child for success at each
step.

• Prompting, fading, cueing
– Physical and verbal prompts help the child.
– Fading is the removing of prompts as the child
becomes competent.
– Some prompts may be physical.
– Guide the child through the steps to be
independent.

• Amount and timing of reinforcement
– The amount varies from child to child.
– It needs to be enough to change the behavior,
but not so much that the child expects it.
– Timing needs to be close to the behavior so
that the child knows what is being rewarded.

• Praise
– Praise should be real and descriptive.
– Avoid using “good boy” or “well done.”
– Tell the child what was good or well.
– Phrase it so that the child feels good about
himself or herself, not just pleasing others.

• Shaping
– Reinforcement for an approximation of the
behavior.
– Occurs naturally when child is developing
language.
– Can be very systematic as children are
learning skills.

Learning by Imitation
• Children learn by watching.
• Model the behavior they see.
• They learn through the television, their
peers, their parents, and caregivers.
• “Do as I say, not as I do” is ineffective
teaching.

Learning by Imitation (continued)
• Competition is inappropriate
– Comparing children’s progress to another
child does not improve development.
– Children should be compared to their own
earlier learning.
– Children then compete to better themselves,
rather than to beat someone else.

Allen Chapter 12

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