Premack Principle, also known as “Grandma’s Law” is a behavior intervention used across the ABA

world. It works very well when properly implemented. The key is finding a reinforcer valuable
enough to evoke the desired behavior. The “Grandma’s Law” part refers to the old Grandma
demand we’ve all probably received that goes something like, “first eat your broccoli, then you can
have your ice cream”. Each of our kids respond to reinforcers unique to the individual. Finding a
valuable reinforcement for completion of homework tasks when the child comes home from school
can relieve some in-home stress for parents.
The key is providing the demand with “first-then” language. Suppose your child really struggles with
math and upon presentation of math tasks engages in challenging behaviors. It may be helpful to
present first-then language before presenting the math task. You may say, “first, do 5 math
problems, then you can have 3 minutes on the iPad”, (or whatever reinforcement is appropriate for
your child). Doing this type of intervention is a tested and effective antecedent manipulation to
prevent challenging behaviors from occurring.
Again, a reinforcer assessment will be key before implementing this with any of our children to pair
the most valuable reinforcer with the lowest preferred task.

1. You're Working Hard Putting Away Toys!

Encourage your child to clean up when she is done playing by offering praise right when it happens.
"Rewards need to occur as close to the action as possible to have the greatest impact, " explains Dr.
Richard Horowitz, a parenting coach and author of "Family Centered Parenting." As you see her start to
pick up her toys, offer verbal praise for her starting the effort by saying something like "I like how hard you
are working to put your toys away."

2. Good Effort Eating Your Dinner -- One Bite at a Time!

If mealtimes are a battle, reinforce your child taking a bite of food even if he doesn't eat the entire thing. It
can be tempting to bribe your child with dessert for eating dinner, but this can be a slippery slope.
Rudnick suggests emphasizing the times when your child really makes an effort to eat.

3. Praise Steps Leading Up to the Desired Behavior

Instead of nagging your child 20 times to brush her teeth, Dr. Reilly suggests reinforcing the steps leading
up to the teeth brushing. "You don't want to reinforce after the struggle, because then you are reinforcing
the struggle itself," she says. "You want to start noticing and being appreciative of the steps leading up to
the teeth brushing so that the whole process is easier."

For example, if you explain that it's time for your child to brush her teeth and she starts moving toward the
bathroom, you can verbally praise her for starting the process.

4. Great Job Starting!

When you see your child independently starting her homework, you can use verbal positive reinforcement
as a way to encourage her to continue to do it, explains Dr. Reilly. Say something like "Great job taking
your homework out and starting it all by yourself!" Saying, "You do a great job on your homework!" or
"You are so smart!" is less effective. Focus on the process of doing the homework itself rather than on
how your child does on the homework.

5. Value Learning More Than Test Scores

Similar to how you approach homework, when your child does well on a test you want to praise the effort.
"Praising effort and what a child learned along the way is more important than saying 'You're so smart.' It
instills in children that hard work is to be celebrated," explains Rudnick. Dr. Reilly adds that you don't want
your child to feel like she only gets praise if she gets an A on her test.

You also want to be aware of telling your child "You're the best!" This could end up hurting your child's
self-worth if he feels like he always has to be best, and anything short of that could end up making him
feel bad.
6. Celebrate the Effort
Sometimes kids can be timid about trying something new. To encourage them, praise your child's effort.
"The reinforcement would be for the willingness to take a chance and trying something new," explains Dr.
Reilly. Rather than saying, "You played so well!" you can say, "I know how scary it can be to do
something new. I like how you tried this even though you were scared."

 Bob does the dishes (behavior) in order to stop his mother's nagging
(aversive stimulus).
 Natalie can get up from the dinner table (aversive stimulus) when she
eats 2 bites of her broccoli (behavior).
 Joe presses a button (behavior) that turns off a loud alarm (aversive
stimulus)

Positive punishment

Positive punishment works by presenting an aversive consequence after an

undesired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior less likely to happen in
the future. The following are some examples of positive punishment:

 A child picks his nose during class (behavior) and the teacher
reprimands him (aversive stimulus) in front of his classmates.
 A child touches a hot stove (behavior) and feels pain (aversive
stimulus).
 A person eats spoiled food (behavior) and gets a bad taste in his/her
mouth (aversive stimulus).

What is Negative Punishment?

Negative punishment happens when a certain reinforcing stimulus
is removedafter a particular undesired behavior is exhibited, resulting in the
behavior happening less often in the future.

The following are some examples of negative punishment:

 A child kicks a peer (behavior), and is removed from his/her favorite

activity (reinforcing stimulus removed)
 A child yells out in class (behavior),loses a token for good behavior on
his/her token board (reinforcingstimulus removed) that could havelater
be cashed in for a prize.
 A child fights with her brother (behavior) and has her favorite toy taken
away (reinforcing stimulus removed).