Shaping and Fading
Welcome back to Parent’s Cove! Thanks for clicking on the next post. In the last post, I discussed the difference between reinforcement and punishment and how understanding the difference between the two will help you to better manage challenging behaviours you may experience with your child. I mentioned that reinforcement increases the likelihood of behaviour occurring in the future whereas punishment decreases the likelihood. This week, I will discuss shaping the behaviours you want to see and fading reinforcement so that your child is able to maintain desired behaviours on her own.
Again, I will begin by defining the terms. Shaping is essentially reinforcing (encouraging) closer and closer approximations to the desired behaviour. Whereas fading is exactly what it sounds like, making something gradually disappear. In this case, using less and less praise or reinforcement to help maintain the behaviour that you have shaped.
Let us look at a real life example. Your young child has just started IBI or school or any program for that matter where she is expected to sit for a long period of time. You are nervous because you know your child is just not-the-sitting-type. She will not sit for even 1-minute at home let alone in an unfamiliar environment. What can you do to help? This is when shaping comes into practice.
First and foremost you must set a goal. Let us say your goal is for your child to sit for 10-minutes. Keep that goal in-mind –or better yet jot it down before it gets lost among all the other numbers you need to remember (your pin, phone numbers, passwords…)
Anyway, with this goal in mind, begin to practice. You can practice sitting to listen to a story, practice sitting to look at pictures, practice sitting to look at the stars. Notice the type of activities I have suggested. These types of activities encourage sitting as well as attending, which mimics what her new environment will be like. Instead of practicing with a high-preferred toy or phone that she can engage and disengage with on her own, instead practice sitting with a book or a photo album and interact with her. Find a happy medium with the type of activities that interest her. You want to entice and draw her in. You want to engage her with words, questions, facial expressions, social interactions and the like. This way she is forced to focus on the person and the interaction.
What was that goal again? –To sit for a 10-minute period. During your first practice session you notice that your child sits and attends to a story for 30-seconds. Praise her. Do not push for longer. Praise her for sitting –“You sat so nicely to listen to mommy read”— then let her go. Make sure to use descriptive praise so she knows what she is being praised for. During the next session, she sits for 1-minute, praise that new interval. Once you notice she is consistently sitting for 1-minute, you will no longer praise the shorter 30-second interval. In-fact you will fade your praise for the short interval and only encourage the longer. For the next session, you notice, she is actually sitting for a whole 2-minutes. Again, praise that new interval and fade the old. Remember, your goal is to get to 10-minutes. Continue to do this. Little by little you will begin to notice that your child is sitting for longer and longer periods of time. Continue to reinforce new intervals and fade the shorter ones. Before you know it, your child will sit for the full 10-minutes. Think of shaping and fading, as you would encourage a baby to take her first steps. Once the baby pulls herself up and stands while holding on to the couch, you make a big deal out of it. But once she is able to stand on her own, you no longer praise the standing with holding-on, instead, this is faded and you begin to praise and encourage new behaviours. Eventually, when the baby takes her first steps, you praise (reinforce) these first steps and you no longer praise the standing. This is the same way you would set goals for your child and then reinforce closer and closer approximations to desired behaviours while fading praise to learned behaviours.–Deborah Vincent
