All Behavior is Learned

They way we talk to ourselves.
The way we respond to others.
The habits we develop.

All behavior is learned through reinforcement. Reinforcement is when we receive something that is motivating enough that encourages us to do a behavior again in order to reach that reinforcer again. For example, if you hate to run but your dog escaped, I bet you will start to run. The reinforcer (catching your dog!) outweighed the effort required to run. If you do end up catching your dog, you’ll most likely run the next time your dog escapes too, because you’ve now learned that running was successful to getting your reinforcer.

Often times, we (teachers/parents/coaches, etc.) expect our youth to meet a target goal by just simply “knowing” how to do it. We forget that all behavior requires many steps. Even a task such as washing your hands can be broken down into 5+ steps. Not everyone learns the same way and we can’t just assume someone is learning in the same ways we may have.

If your child, student or client are stuck and not progressing towards a target goal in the ways we may expect, it’s highly possible we are are (accidentally) reinforcing this by not breaking down and reinforcing each step needed. We may be doing the final steps for them (or the initial steps).

So, what do you do now?

Identify what the target behavior is (what is the ultimate goal?) and break it down into each individual step required to accomplish the behavior
Identify the behavior that your child/client can currently perform (even if it’s an approximation)
Identify (through conversation and/or observation) what is highly motivating for your client/child to be reinforced by (e.g., verbal praise, more TV time, etc.)
Start at the step below that you know your child/client can do successfully and build from there. Reinforce EACH step; including approximations of a step
Complete each step this way until mastery

Notice the steps that are most challenging for your child/student/client and teach from right where they are stuck at.