Building Good Behavior and Building Self-Esteem in Children with Dr. Henry Schlinger
Want to Learn how to Increase Talking & Decrease Tantrums in Children with Autism or Toddlers Showing Signs?
Want to start making a difference for your child or clients?
ABA and positive reinforcement go hand-in-hand when building good behavior in children. Dr. Henry (Hank) Schlinger Jr. is on the podcast today to discuss his book, How to Build Good Behavior and Self-Esteem in Children, and the science behind it. Dr. Schlinger’s book breaks down common problems parents face into five key points and sheds light on the five myths that prevent parents from fixing them.
Five Problems Any Parent Faces:
- Parents fly on automatic pilot and are not aware of how their behavior affects their children’s behavior and how their children’s behavior affects theirs.
- Parents think that just telling their kids how to behave will work.
- Parents teach their children to be the boss.
- Parents ignore good behavior and teach bad behavior.
- Parents think that the kid they get is just the luck of the draw. Sometimes you get a good kid and sometimes not such a good kid.
Five Myths Regarding Positive Reinforcement:
- Reinforcement doesn’t work with humans
- Using positive reinforcement is bribery.
- Using positive reinforcement is unnatural.
- Using positive reinforcement is manipulative.
- Using positive reinforcement undermines intrinsic motivation.
In episode 132, ABA Therapy: Four Myths & Truths, I drive home the fact that ABA is a science, it is at work all the time. Positive reinforcement is the same way. It is a science that works in animals, humans, kids with disabilities, kids without disabilities, and adults. It works for everyone. We go over solutions to Dr. Schlinger’s five problems and how to effectively use positive reinforcement to increase good behavior and decrease problem behavior.
The advice and suggestions for parenting that Dr. Schlinger and I discuss, using his book as a guide, will help parents whether their child has autism or not. The information discussed in his book and in my book, Turn Autism Around, are built on the foundation of engagement and positive environments. Dr. Schlinger says that when you’re helping your child by reinforcing good behavior, your child is happier, then you’re happier, and that is the key to being less stressed as a family.
Today’s Guest
Henry D. (Hank) Schlinger Jr. received his Ph.D. in psychology (applied behavior analysis) from Western Michigan University (WMU) under the supervision of Jack Michael. He then completed a two-year National Institutes of Health-funded post-doctoral fellowship in behavioral pharmacology, also at WMU with Alan Poling. Dr. Schlinger was a full-tenured professor of psychology at Western New England University in Springfield, MA, before moving to Los Angeles in 1998.
He is now a professor of psychology, former director of the M. S. Program in Applied Behavior Analysis, a current coordinator of the ABA Specialization Option and BCaBA course sequence in the Department of Psychology at California State University, Los Angeles. Dr. Schlinger has published more than 80 scholarly articles, chapters, and commentaries in 35 different journals and books. He also authored or coauthored four books, Psychology: A Behavioral Overview (1990); A Behavior-Analytic View of Child Development (1995) (which was translated into Japanese); introduction to Scientific Psychology (1998), and How to Build Good Behavior and Self-Esteem in Children (2021).
He is a past editor of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior And The Behavior Analyst and sits on the editorial boards of several other journals. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies and on the Advisory Board of The B. F. Skinner Foundation and The Venus Project. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Psychology at Western Michigan University in 2012, and the Jack Michael Award for Outstanding Contributions in Verbal Behavior from the Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group of the Association for Behavior Analysis International in 2015.
You’ll Learn
- Five problems ANY parents face regardless of age or ability.
- Myths regarding positive reinforcement.
- Critical tips for parents and professionals.
Resources
- TurnAutismAround.com
- Turn Autism Around
- #085: Siblings of Autism: Interview with My Son Spencer Barbera
- #093: Autism Detection: A Summary of Dr. Ami Klin’s Autism Work
- How to Discipline a Child with Autism – Positive Parenting Techniques
- #132: ABA Therapy: Four Myths and Truths
- Buildgoodbehavior.com
- How to Build Good Behavior and Self-Esteem in Children
Want to Learn how to Increase Talking & Decrease Tantrums in Children with Autism or Toddlers Showing Signs?
Want to start making a difference for your child or clients?
