Looking for the reinforcer – that’s what we do as parents, teachers, caregivers and leaders of industry: CEO’s and CFO’s. We look for the reinforcer. It was interesting sitting at a meeting with individuals that all earn over six figures a year, a group of them. The management was discussing a higher performance and a higher success and I asked them: “what do you think would motivate you to want to do something different, to do more, to produce more?” Two of them stood up: “we like the envelope board!”
The envelope board is a cork board, that everybody has in their house somewhere, where they post messages or pin a picture. In this case, they pin sealed envelopes, and each sealed envelope has a different amount of money. As each salesperson produces something extra, however we define it, they’re able to go to the cork board and choose any envelope of mystery that they want. They strive to achieve their next goal in order to participate in the mystery of chance. As they produce something ‘extra’, their behavior is reinforced. (more…)
I want to talk to you for a moment about some of the elderly tribal members that sometimes we forget about. I was in a nursing home a few hours ago and the staff were concerned about an elderly gentleman who was probably in his 90′s and was paralyzed and he had problems being courteous. When he wanted something, he would yell and when he would be reprimanded by the staff, he would get angry and they said he was verbally abusive. After listening to their concerns, I went in and talked to the gentleman.
As I entered his room, he was watching the TV and it was extremely loud. I asked him if I could talk to him or if he would rather watch the TV. He said “no, you can turn the TV off” and of course he was yelling at the time. I accidentally turned down the sound instead of turning the TV off and he immediately yelled at me “don’t turn the sound down!” I looked at him and said “are you angry? Why are you yelling at me?” and he replied with “I’m sorry, just turn the power off.” I turned the power off and went and sat down. (more…)
Its important for individuals, parents, teachers, even the care givers in elderly homes, to realize that whenever they’re focusing on a behavior for change, they have to determine whether or not that is a behavior they would like to change because it bothers them or it’s good for the child or good for the patient. In other words, is it a natural behavior or is it an unnatural behavior.
Diane, my wife, years back wanted to get a German Shepherd and we were both very exited about shopping for it. She knew German Shepherd’s. She had been raised with them and had raised three or four of them and knew their personalities. In the mean time, there was a family that had pedigreed Border Collies and they found out their children were allergic to the dogs and they couldn’t keep them. We took our family down to look at them and they were just beautiful dogs. The boys fell in love with them almost immediately and we decided we would take on Border Collies rather than a German Shepherd. (more…)
Our elderly parents and the concerns we have for our elderly parents, especially those living independently. We want to insure that they are constantly safe, yet we hear through the media the words Alzheimer’s and dementia. Dementia actually refers to a severe type of, well, a loss thinking ability, especially memory. A person with dementia may have trouble carrying out everyday tasks, and they loose a sense of what they’re normally familiar with, such as their neighborhood or the people they know or the pets they once had.
Dementia often happens in later years, especially in people that are 85 years or older. But what you have to distinguish between in terms of your worry, is that some memory loss is normal, as we age. Dementia is not. How do you distinguish that? Well, we worry about senility and getting old. Senility is somewhat normal. It means absent minded. That’s normal and it comes with age. Maybe we just have to much memory to recall as opposed to when we were younger. Memory changes often remain mild and they really do not interfere with our functioning. (more…)