Behavioral Health
Just Kids Pediatrics recognizes how hard it is to be a parent, especially in this new Covid world. We appreciate the difficult challenge of wearing so many hats: teacher, therapist, referee, judge, chef, housekeeper, accountant, entertainer, nurse and of course, Mother. Amongst all these responsibilities, you must also raise your baby to become a happy, healthy, successful adult.
The good news is you do not have to do this alone. Our team will post short articles to assist you in laying down a foundation to achieve this goal. Enjoy these pearls of wisdom and use them as the need arises to make parenting more enjoyable and successful.
Today I thought we would start with the fundamental principle of behavioral management, also known as reinforcement. Anything that causes a behavior to be repeated is called reinforcement. If you go to work, they pay you with money. This is reinforcement. If they stopped paying you, you probably would stop working. The more they pay you, the more likely it is that you will do as they ask. Fairly simple, right? How do we apply this to your kids? What motivates them? For most, especially for younger ones, attention is the best motivator. For example, if you see your baby smile, you smile back and show your happiness. She sees you are pleased and smiles more. And the cycle continues.
Pearl: Reinforce the behaviors you want to continue.
Homework: “Catch” your child doing something you like. Then I want you to give them positive feedback (AKA reinforcement). The more you see them repeat that action, provide them more encouragement. Let’s see if they start doing it more.
Keep an eye out for further columns like this one.
- Dr. Mark Gettleman, Just Kids Pediatrics