By: Alexa Fahd
Positive Behavior Technique:
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy
An operant behavior modification protocol one can use to reinforce positive behavior is Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). This is a behavior modification technique which teaches specific skills to parents. These skills can be used to help improve physical and verbal exchanges with their children. PCIT is one effective way to prevent child abuse & neglect because parents will learn to understand why their children behave the way that they do. This will prevent those tantrums in public or those phone calls from the child's school. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy is helpful for children who exhibit disruptive behavior because the parents will learn what they can do to change their child's behavior preventing emotional outbursts and challenging behavior. Children who have experienced trauma and those on the autism spectrum can benefit from PCIT as well. This is because Parent-Child Interaction Therapy works to improve the social abilities of children. PCIT has many lifelong effects on people who participate in this therapy in their childhood. One of these lifelong effects is that PCIT actually decreases one's risk of being antisocial. Because this type of therapy works on a child's social skills, children who participate in PCIT have better social skills and are more outgoing for the most part. A second lifelong effect on people who participate in this therapy in their childhood tend to have a lower chance of engaging in criminal behavior later in life. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy teaches good morals and how to have a positive outlook which decreases one's probability of engaging in criminal behavior.
Modifiers, Reinforcers, and Punishers
The reinforcers that Parent-Child Interaction Therapy includes is verbal praise for positive behavior. When children engage in a positive behavior, the parents will encourage this behavior by using words of affirmation, such as, “It is marvelous how you are…”, “Outstanding way of…”, and “Nice job…”, which encourage their children to engage in this positive behavior again in the future. The punishers that PCIT includes would be taking away something that a child likes. When children engage in a negative behavior, the parents will discourage this behavior by eliminating a thing that the child particularly enjoys including technology, electronic devices, coloring books, or toys, which allows the child to realize that when they engage in the negative behavior, there will be a punishment. As the child begins to learn and change their behavior, both the reinforcers and the punishments can be modified. One modification of a reinforcer would be to award a child a larger quantity of a reinforcer if they engage in the positive behavior for a long period of time.
Schedules
When looking at the schedules of modifiers and reinforcers in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, operant conditioning allows for there to be multiple approaches. One is by teaching the PRIDE skills. PRIDE is an acronym that stands for praise, reflect, imitate, describe, and enjoy. If this method is used first the parent should praise the child for their positive behavior. After that, the parent and the child will both reflect on the behavior in which the child performed and then the parent will imitate this behavior. Following that the parent will describe the behavior that they were imitating and explain why this behavior is positive and beneficial. Lastly, the parent will reward and praise the child with the designated reinforcers. This schedule in particular is continuous because the child and parent are continuously working on modifying the undesired behavior.
MEASURING BEHAVIOR
An example of a way that one could measure relevant behavior when participating in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy is in a spreadsheet that includes the behavior, the dates in which the behavior was participated in, if the child was successful in their participation, and any problems that occurred. Here is one example that a parent could use if they wanted to measure their child’s success in becoming a better reader.
Limitations
One limitation when it comes to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy is that the parent must insure that they apply the PCIT techniques and lessons outside of therapy. If the parent does not do this, there will be inconsistency and the child will learn when and where they can engage in negative behaviors without suffering the consequences. Another limitation would include the time in which it takes to complete Parent-Child Interaction Therapy. On average, PCIT can be completed in anywhere between 12 and 20 sessions but because this is over a large amount of time, consistency in both attendance and homework completion is necessary.
