Negative reinforcement in children

All those who are parents know for sure that educating a child is not an easy task. It depends on a good and correct education that the child is capable of having a good behavior and learning a series of values, to help you be a good person in the future.

Unfortunately, there are many parents who currently do not know how to educate their children with all that this entails, especially in the long term. The reinforcement Positive is a key element in education but not the only one. You have to know how to combine it perfectly with negative reinforcement. In the balance of both is a good education for the child.

Reinforcement in the education of children

The reinforcement, whether positive or negative, will allow the child to behave appropriately in certain situations that occur on a day-to-day basis. This reinforcement is a key part of the education of children and if it is used correctly, the results are as desired unlike those parents who do not use it properly. The reinforcement can be positive or negative and parents must take into account their differences at all times and from there follow a series of guidelines when using them.

Negative reinforcement

Negative reinforcement consists of removing an unpleasant and aversive stimulus from the child after a certain behavior has occurred. In such a case, the behavior is further intensified by pushing away such an unpleasant stimulus.

With negative reinforcement, the aforementioned behavior is increased, while with positive reinforcement, the behavior decreases. Therefore they are two totally different types of reinforcements. Negative reinforcement should not be considered a positive reinforcement procedure. With negative reinforcement, you are increasing a behavior, while with positive reinforcement, you are decreasing a behavior.

To make it clearer to you, Here are some examples of what could be considered negative reinforcement:

• María does the housework so that her mother won't send her more.
• Sergio cleans and bathes the dog to prevent it from having problems with ticks.
• Antonio lowers the volume of the television so that his father does not have a bad time and complains all the time.
• Francisco makes the bed every morning and in this way his mother does not scold him.

It is important to note that in many cases, when applying negative reinforcement, the child's conduct or behavior can get worse and worse. For example, if you go with your son to a shopping center and he asks you to buy him something, the normal thing is that you say no and the thing does not go away. But it may happen that he throws a tantrum and screams and you end up buying him something to shut up. The child will know that every time he misbehaves and screams, he will get the gift. You are therefore reinforcing your child's bad behavior.

Ultimately, Remember that reinforcement always seeks to increase the child's positive behavior. In the case of negative reinforcement, what is sought at all times is to reduce the child's inappropriate behavior. It is important to find a balance in both types or classes of reinforcement in order to achieve good behavior in the child. Education is based on knowing how to apply both types of reinforcement at all times. It is useless to use positive reinforcement if later you do not know how to apply negative and vice versa. Unfortunately, a lot of the bad behavior of children today is due to the bad education they receive from their parents.