B. F. Skinner's Reinforcement In Strugglin Psychology

I had just returned from a 4 hour flight from Texas. I was there to visit my uncle’s family. My two year old cousin was diagnosed with Autism. Raised to be a bilingual, he was able to speak both English and Urdu/Hindi by the time he was two. After talking to his parents I learned that he had demonstrated some signs of speech and language impediment. While this change alarmed his parents, everyone else thought he was craving for attention. However, over the next few months his behavior regressed. He started walking in circles, whirled the blades of a table fan, and watched it for hours until someone interrupted. His parents would call his name, but he would not respond to it. Here, I would like to mention that in a South Asian society mental health or developmental disorders are considered taboo and are kept private to most of the acquaintances. His parents did not even have a clue about what was going on with their child; the language barrier made it harder for them to explain his condition to the specialists. Realizing that his parents were …show more content…
I am a strong proponent for using Positive Reinforcement in behavior analysis, as B.F. Skinner says, “A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying. ” If used properly reinforcement can fortify an individual 's future behavior if it is followed by a reward. One of my favourite books, “ How to Think Like a Behavior Analyst: Understanding the Science That Can Change Your Life” by Jon Bailey and Mary R. Burch,, has really helped me understand the field of ABA and how to properly explain my job to the parents and teachers I will encounter, or a way to simply explain to anyone the basics of ABA and the responsibilities of BCBA 's to my clients and the scientific field as a