Effects of positive social reinforcement on regressed crawling of a nursery school child

Use of social reinforcement procedures to help a child substitute already established walking behavior for recently reacquired crawling behavior was studied in a nursery school situation. Adult attention was systematically given as an immediate consequence of one behavior and withheld as an immediate consequence of the other behavior. Results indicated that: (a) adult attention had powerful reinforcement values; (b) reversal of reinforcement procedures had distinct positive effects; and (c) systematic use of reinforcement principles brought about rapid changes in behavior, seeming to facilitate both child learning and adult teaching.