PBA: Okay, taavah’s too big, I’m going to take credit for that one :)… but especially because it’s true. Working over the summer in a camp for special needs kids with a big focus on life skills, we gave positive reinforcement, but it was REAL positive reinforcement because we were thrilled when a girl did the right thing. If someone had said, okay, if Shprintzy hits Yenty you should give her positive reinforcement, that just wouldn’t happen. When a girl got up from the table right away after dinner, or participated in an activity, or davened well, it was a great feeling for us and the point was to make sure that that great feeling washed over them as well. If you can’t give positive reinforcement as a natural consequence of the right thing, as an outgrowth of your happiness that your beloved child/student did the right thing, then that’s a problem.
I actually have a teacher who is eerily fond of giving us articles all about how too much praise is bad for students and how the ones who barely received any positive reinforcement were more successful. REALLY fun to read…