This is the second of two lessons on troubleshooting. The first lesson was on basic features to check if your behavior change program is not working or the changes you see in your child are not enough. The basics included procedures that are the first place to begin to check, to see how your program is implemented. Typically, attending to the basics in the first lesson will fix 90% of the programs. In this lesson, I present additional troubleshooting techniques. These techniques can be used for troubleshooting but they also are novel in ways, so that they can be used as techniques in their own right. But if you master these advanced techniques, you'll be a black belt in troubleshooting and repairing programs. So let us begin. Let us say you have been using some of the behavior change tools we have been discussing and the programs are not working the way you'd like. Now, we move into troubleshooting mode and use techniques designed to turn this around and make the program effective. Advanced troubleshooting techniques are additional tools that are good to know and provide another line of attack beyond the basics recovered in the prior lesson. The first technique is called jumpstarting. Jumpstarting, this is a strategy to get the child just to begin the behavior, or accomplish the initial steps. Often the hardest part of changing behavior is getting the new behavior going at all. So you can reward it or steps toward it. This is especially true when there's a sequence of actions that have to be done in order to achieve the desired outcome. To take an adult example, let us say you're spouse claims that he or she wishes to exercise. And has even gone to the trouble of spending good money on gym membership and some equipment. But he never gets around to actually exercising. In this case, exercising includes several steps. Consider it as a sequence of steps, getting the clothes and the equipment, getting to the gym, changing into the clothes, beginning to exercise, and so on. And now you could use the antecedent's behaviors and consequences to help foster exercise. Antecedents would be some prompt, honey, please go to the gym today. To tinker with behaviors, you might include shaping and add to your prompt. It is great, even if you go for just a few minutes, honey! And you could tinker with consequences, such as the promise of doing anything he wants the next day if he just goes to exercise with you. These might work to get the behavior started, but unlikely. The inertia generated by the number of steps he has to accomplish, might well prove to be too great and you're not seeing enough of a sequence to build a habit so you can reward it or praise, you might instead try jumpstarting the behavior. Jumpstarting is when you get a present just to participate in the early part of the sequence or set of behaviors. When a person is in the early part, the likelihood of proceeding through the next step and the next step and the next step, is greatly increased. This procedure comes from research on sequences of behavior and has a much more technical name called response priming. The entire sequence is primed or greatly increased by just beginning the sequence. So here's what you might do in the case of exercise. How do you get your husband or partner to the gym and do the first step? Try this, honey, I'm going to the gym today and I'd really like it if you came with me just to keep me company and check it out. You do not have to work out or anything like that. Just come with me. This is also a clever antecedent by making it so he does not have to exercise that alone increases the likelihood of him going with you. In terms of jumpstarting, getting him there and suited up for exercise in the gym, places him early in the sequence. Let's call this whole sequence exercising at the gym if he does just this early part of the sequence, he is much more likely to at least go to the next step in the sequence and may be jump into a class or lift one weight, or just do something. And when you jumpstart behavior, you're now can start shaping with topic of another lesson. So for troubleshooting, a parent argue with the child, jumpstarting and shaping can work wonders. Many of your child's behaviors are sequences and can be broken down into steps. Let us begin to identify the first step of a common sequence. So you want your child to complete 30 minutes of homework, for example. A first step might be sitting at a desk with his or her book open. Or you might want your child, so what kind of project? And that first step might be, starting the project with you and working on it for just one or two minutes. After the first step is completed, the child is allowed to stop. That is the critical part. After the initial behaviour, the person can decide to continue or not. You can even say after the first step, if you'd like to stop now, that's fine. Or we could continue. Now, you're giving a choice which as you know is a great addition to any antecedent. Remember, giving a choice increases the likelihood of getting the as you wish. Also, you can just remain silent and continue with the activity. The research shows that the likelihood of the child continuing is very high. Where they're asked to continue or not. Even if sometimes your child elects not to continue the activity, it will be easier next time to get that first behavior in the sequence, especially if you praise taking that first step. So use jumpstarting just to ask your child to do at early step of sequence. Maybe help her, if it's possible a physical problem and that will help, too. Jumpstarting tends to violate conventional wisdom about not making a child dependent or giving in by not demanding the entire behavior. This are real worries of parents. Yet, jump starting or any of the tools we have discussed in these lessons, will not make the child dependent. Remember, we are building long lasting habits in children that focus on behaviors you wish to work on. Another jumpstarting technique is called consequence sharing. And this helps increase the effectiveness of a program that isn't working too well. Consequence sharing refers to providing a rewarding consequence to the individual for his or her behavior but also giving the same reward to others, as well. Here's a common use of consequence sharing. Some parents mention that they only need a special program to change the behavior of one of their children. So let us say you have a six year old son, and you are using a point program to help tone down his aggression. And he has a seven year old sister who does not need any program. Consequence sharing means that if he does the desired behavior, he gets the reward, but also so does she. Whatever he earns, she earns as well. The reward could be points, so she gets the back up reward, or it could be much easier if you just use a privilege such as staying up 15 minutes longer for bed, or hearing a story, something like that could be used each day. This is consequence sharing because the daughter does not have to do any special behavior to get the reward. She gets it as a consequence at her brother's behavior. Now, we use this approach only with positive things, never punishment. So it's important that you never take away anything in consequence sharing. So you don't say, he didn't do this, so you lose a privilege. No, no, no, it's always something added or extra. Never set it up so the innocent person is involved in anything that would be punishing. One added benefit of consequence sharing is that it offers a solution to the me to problem, that may come up when one sibling needs a program and the other does not. The sibling with the pointer privilege program is getting lots of something, praise and rewards, and the other is not. This does not seem fair to the person who's not involved with the program. Well, one way to correct that in equity, its consequentially, one shall earn the reward but both shall profit from it and that gets rid of the problem of me to. The good consequences are enjoyed by all. So solving the me to problem is not a main reason here in consequentially, the main reason that I'm talking about is because it increases the effect in this and it's a great advanced troubleshooting technique. Siblings end up encouraging the child to do the behaviors often with very specific statements like do this or do that and I will help you. And research shows that a child will often value a reinforcer more highly, when she urges for a sibling or a peer as well as for herself. So consequence sharing has been used very effectively in the home, but also in the classroom, where the behavior of one child can earn an extra privilege for the whole class at the end of each day. In such circumstances, the peers become very helpful and supportive of the child who's earning the rewards. There's an occasional side effect of consequence sharing that's really worth mentioning. The behavior of those who share the reward but are not the target individuals, show some benefit from the program even though they did nothing to earn the reward. There is a vicarious effect, and they pay attention to see someone else earning this other praise or reward. And in paying attention to it, usually their behavior changes and they profit from the other consequences. This tends to increase the behavior of the non-target child who only is watching or sharing in the consequences. It is important that consequence sharing of a sibling or a classmate never involve losing anything that they would otherwise get. The consequence that is shared is always something extra that is provided. Third and final advance technique for troubleshooting is to use a group program. Now, here, a group means a minimum of two people. It could be a child and a sibling, or all the children in a home. Here, the behavior of each individual must be performed to receive some rewarding consequence. For example, for both siblings, both rooms might need to be cleaned up fairly well, for each of them to receive some privilege or points. Now, this is not consequentially because the behaviour of both individuals is required to receive the reward. The do share in the rewarding consequence but each has to perform to get that. This can be used in the home for all the children, or when there's a sleep over at your house for all the children who attend, or in the classroom where the group can be the whole class. A group program treats the whole group as one person. The group is the basic unit. Not only in doing the behavior, but in receiving the consequences. So let us say two children are arguing a lot, or too much for you, and quibble all the time about TV shows, about toys, about use of the bathroom. This should be a good place for a group program. They are treated as a unit and have to not quibble. For the morning, or after school, you set some time. If they do not argue they get some reward and your refusal praise. If one starts to tease and pick a they both miss the opportunity tom earn something, also your praise is directed to both of it as a unit. You say something like, you two have played together so nicely, that is just great to see. As with other techniques I'm mentioning, those in this lesson are for troubleshooting but can be used as a tool all by themselves. In addition, you might want to use a group program as this technique in any time you want a single behavior from all the people involved. If you want both all the children to complete a behavior, you can make a special reward as a privilege, but they all have to do it. So let me summarize. I have covered three techniques for troubleshooting, they are designed to help with programs are not working as well as you would like. The advanced techniques in this lesson includes jumpstarting, consequence sharing and group programs. I refer to the techniques in this lesson as advanced because they are more complex to implement and also because they are used for more than just troubleshooting. If you're programmed to change some child behavior is not working well, please start with the first troubleshooting message. The reason is that the basic troubleshooting techniques, in the vast majority of instances, are all that are needed to make the program more effective. As with other techniques, the strategies outlined are temporary solutions that you use to produce permanent changes in behavior. We'll have more techniques to help you address challenges in child rearing and make parenting a bit easier.
