When implementing extinction procedures, it is important to remember the following: Be consistent with your planned ignoring By shifting the way that you respond to a child’s behavior, you are changing their expectations – often very suddenly. Although the process sounds simple enough, it is often extremely challenging to implement. Extinction is an intervention strategy that has been widely shown to be effective in reducing rates of inappropriate behaviors in children. The term extinction refers to discontinuing rewarding a behavior that has previously been rewarded. Planned ignoring is one the simplest types of extinction procedures.
In addition, planned ignoring in this example can serve as a useful intervention tool – by continuing to show that tantrums will not work for the child in getting his Mother’s attention, he may be less likely to engage in the future. This ignoring procedure thereby serves to test whether, in the past, she may have inadvertently rewarded her child’s tantrums by attending to the behavior rather than continuing the phone call. Mom then may choose to employ planned ignoring techniques during future phone calls by selectively ignoring tantrums. As it is likely that Mom is unable to attend to her child while her attention is diverted to a phone call, it is reasonable to believe that repeated instances of tantrum behavior in this context may be attention-seeking in nature. One example of planned ignoring might be with the child who engages in tantrum behavior whenever his mother is on the phone. In other words, parents identify behaviors that function as a means of getting their attention and selectively ignore them. Why does it matter? Because if parents see an escalation in behavior and they want it to be temporary, they need to make sure bad behavior doesn’t work to get good things.The procedure of planned ignoring involves deliberate parental inattention to the occurrence of target child behaviors. He’s hoping that if he gets extra annoying, he will continue to get what he used to get. That isn’t working so he escalates his behavior because his access to attention has been denied (extinguished).
He is used to getting attention when he cries. Mom still does not respond, so Billy gives it one more extra hard try and mom finally gives in.īilly’s escalation is the extinction burst. Undeterred, Billy gets louder and more ridiculous. Mom checks it out and sees that he isn’t hurt or scared, so she carries on.
So, Billy is just using a proven tactic to get mom’s attention. Based on his history of behavior in the past, he has probably gotten attention from mom when he cries, maybe even when he was hurt or scared. What is an Extinction Burst? Sounds like something you want to avoid, right?Īn extinction burst is a temporary increase in behavior to get the reward that you are used to getting.īilly is hoping to get his mom’s attention.
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