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What Is The Premack Principle

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Introduction Over the course of this semester I volunteered at Oasis Católico Santa Rafaela, which is a tutoring institution for the Latino children in the local Pinewood trailer park community.
Children from preschool through the fourth grade attend Oasis every Monday through Thursday, excluding holidays. I worked with around twenty kindergarteners that attended the after-school program. With the younger children I tutored, we focused on working with their numbers, simple mathematics, and reading in English. The older children worked on subjects more typical to a school setting; the tutors helped (keep with the past tense since that’s what you’ve been using the entire paragraph) further their understanding of reading, writing, math, and …show more content…

This is called the Premack Principle which is defined by Geiger: “a preferred behavior… may be used as an effective reinforcer of a less preferred activity.” (1996) This principle works especially well with young children who need guidelines and parameters. Toward the beginning of the semester, James was easily frustrated and this frustration surfaced during writing quite frequently and sometimes also during reading. With both circumstances, I would get his attention, tell him that it was okay and to take his time, and to try again. With just a little encouragement from me, he was almost always able to figure out how to read or spell the word that had frustrated him. Then I would tell him that he did a great job and give him a high five. This simple act of patience and encouragement worked wonders with this boy. Stephanie was oriented towards learning goals. She always worked hard on her reading and writing and knew her numbers. One day early in the semester when James did not want to do his homework she said, “I always do my homework because I do not want to get bad grades or for my teacher to be sad.” She would also frequently ask me if she had done a good job

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