How Kids and Rats Differ (Lecture 6)

Scientific Secrets for Raising Kids Who Thrive

(Comment: I struggle with this lecture. It does a good job of making sure that we know that humans are not rats, but it still smuggles in the behaviorism. I know this is an area of future reading for me, so I'll leave it at this.)

Conditioning and Behaviors

Tip 1. Don't treat your child like a rat.

Tip 2. Never hit your kids. (It never works.)

Tip 3. Catch your children being good and reward them.

Tip 4. Explain things to children in more detail than you think they need.

Chang did an experiment with rats where he would try to get rats to figure out where food was within a room. He would place food in one corner, remove the rat, then place the rat back in the room in a different orientation. He tried this with colored walls, etc. He found that rats could use some information but not others to help determine where the food is. Specifically, they are bad at using color for this.

Some researchers have replicated this with 1.5 to 2 year olds. Children don't seem to be able to use color either.

Skinner was the father of the school of behaviorism. Four types of results: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment.

Positive reinforcement is doing something and receiving a reward.
Negative reinforcement is the reduction of something bad.
Positive punishment is the increase in something bad on some action.
Negative punishment don't get something good if you do something bad.

(I didn't understand the explanation of this in the lecture. It was fast and unclear. Here is a  better explanation: LINK.)

He tells a story of a group of students who perked up only when he was on the left side of the stage and when he was on the right side, they would act bored. Within a few lectures, he only lectured from the left side of the stage.

One of the central tenants is that all stimuli will act equally. Original behaviorist theory said do whichever is most convenient. Studies show this isn't true. Specifically, spanking as a punishment teaches the child a strategy is to avoid doing it when the punisher is around. Further, they learn to hit other kids. There is a broad consensus that spanking is counterproductive.

There are some longitudinal studies that work to isolate the effects of individual differences in children and show that the more spanking, the less productive it is.

Positively reinforcement is the most effective way to help shape children's good behavior. Notice that the kids are playing nicely with one another and say something to them. A sticker based system can be helpful in helping kids behave as you'd like. Reinforce positive behavior and be sure to explain why you want them to change their behavior. The bedtime sticker game faded with them.

Human children are far more influenced by their own thinking and decisions.

Baby Talk, Sign Language, and Speech - Lecture 5

 There is no doubt that helping your child learn a language is a huge part of raising a child. Language is how we are able to think and ultimately how we can live. These were some helpful hings.

Tip one: Talk to your baby from the very beginning. 


The first word usually happens around one year. The first sentence is around two years. Babies can start using sign language as early as 8 months.

Tip two: Try using baby sign language.
Baby sign language helps with language all around.

Learning to speak requires several different muscles and is a complicated process to learn. Think about the difference between what we need to do with our mouths to distinguish between "ch" and "sh" sounds. As opposed to sign language, which requires only gross motor movement.

Children's sign language doesn't result in speech delays. Susan Goodwin did a study that showed that children with sign language abilities don't lag their non-signing peers.

Tip three: "Motherese" or sing-song baby talk.

Our pitch changes more, our grammar is simpler, our annunciation is more clear. This all helps infants learn language and they often will be more attracted to this. A study shows that an infant will learn the meaning of a word easier if it was taught in "motherese".

Tip four: Talk to a baby as if they are an adult. Regular spoken language is helpful to understand the cadence, tonality, etc of a language. 

The more language a child hears, the more they can start to parse the separation of words and sentences as they acquire language.