Module 3

     Out of all the chapters that I have read so far, this one was my favorite and the one I found most interesting so far. It caught my attention because where I work we are constantly using reinforcers with our students. In our classroom we use positive reinforcement (page 251) more than negative reinforcement. We use positive reinforcement with our students to praise good behavior that the students are showing. For example if one of our students is able to safely transition from one place to another, she is able to pick something from her choice board that she wants to play with for a certain amount of time. This is able to increase the safe transitions that she is having because she will learn that if she can safely transition she will be able to pick a toy of her choice. We do also use negative reinforcements in our classroom. Negative reinforcements are not necessarily bad, for example a little boy in our classroom tends to script a line from Peppa pig and he says "my tummy hurts". He says this in order to try and get sent home so he doesn't have to be at school. Another example that I see at work is with a little boy that is in our class. Every time we head back to class he turns around and says he wants water because he wants to escape going back to class.
      Another part of the chapter that I found interesting was the discussion about classical conditioning (page 248). It is very interesting how many of us have experienced classical conditioning in our own life. In my own experience every time I talk about sour candy or food my mouth waters. In this case it would be an unconditioned response because it is something that naturally happens to me, it wasn't something that was taught to me. Im sure Im not the only one who's mouth salivates when they talk or think about something delicious. When talking about classical conditioning I think about training animals. I have a dog and I taught him that whenever he gets his treats or Scooby snacks as he knows them, he will sit up on his bottom and wait for his treat. In this case his reaction would be a conditioned stimulus.
    The last thing I found interesting was the discussion about prompting (page 255). There are many times that students may need prompting in the classrooms to do work. As a paraprofessional there are different prompts that I use throughout the day. I can use verbal prompts such as telling them " stop and walk with teachers", or I can physically prompt them by pointing to a task they are working on. There are some students who are lower functioning in our classroom and if we are doing work with them and have them doing tasks we stand behind them that way if they need help with the task we can point, or move their elbow in a certain direction to help them.
    These are all very important and I am able to see how we use them on a day to day basis at work. The students that I work with feed off of positive reinforcers in order to help keep them motivated throughout he day.