According to my research, eight behavior management terms are commonly encountered in special education literature. These terms and a brief definition of each are listed below.
Positive Reinforcement: This serves to maintain or increase a behavior as a result of the individual viewing the consequence given as something positive. Positive reinforcement can be tangible, such as stickers or food, or can be social, such as praise or a smile. Sometimes a student is positively reinforced for a behavior you do not want to continue. For example, a child who has been sexually abused may enjoy physical contact with others. This child physically acts out to the point of needing to be restrained so that the behavior is reinforced by the consequence.
Negative Reinforcement: This also serves to maintain or increase a behavior. It does so, however, by removing something that is unpleasant to the behaver. Many students, for example, do their school work to avoid missing play time for work not finished. If the student does not like time out, he may work to avoid that particular consequence. In this case, the use of time out can be a negative reinforcer for the individual.
Punishment: When something unpleasant follows a behavior and results in a reduction of the behavior, punishment occurs. Corporal punishment can only be considered to be punishment if a reduction of the behavior occurs as a result of the "paddling." What may be a reinforcer to one child may be punishment to another.
Extinction: This occurs when one plans to withhold any reinforcement for a specific behavior. If a teacher chooses to ignore a behavior, such as talking out, but a student's classmates do not, this is not considered to be extinction because the student is still being reinforced. It is common when using extinction to see an initial increase in the student's behavior. For example, if a child shouts out in class in order to get attention, he may try shouting louder at first, before the behavior is extinguished.
Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior (DRO): DRO involves reinforcing a child for not engaging in a particular behavior. There are many different types of DRO, such as differential reinforcement of alternative responses or differential reinforcement of incompatible responses. With DRO, however, any response, whether it is desirable or not, is reinforced so long as the response to be eliminated is not emitted. If your goal, for example, is to keep Johnny in the classroom, Johnny would be rewarded for staying in the room, whether he is in or out of his seat. For some students, this may be a good place to start.
Timeout: When a person is removed from the source of reinforcement for a specific period of time, timeout occurs. Timeout may refer to isolation, as in a timeout room, or contingent observation, such as being able to watch classroom activities but not participate in them.
Response Cost: When a student exhibits an undesirable response, which results in a loss of privileges or other reinforcement this is response cost. For example, if you use a point system in your room and you charge Johnny 10 points for talking out, his response is costing him, just like a parking ticket or a late fee.
Overcorrection: There are two types of overcorrection procedures which you may be familiar with. During restitutional training, a student is required to make restitution by returning the environment to an improved status of its original state. For example, if Brenda writes on the wall, she is required to clean not only the space she wrote on but the entire wall itself. The other type, positive practice, involves the student practicing the correct response repeatedly. If Sue turns in an assignment that is too sloppy to read, she must not only do that task over again but must also perform another task neatly.
Justen, III, J. & Howerton, D. (1993). Clarifying behavior management terminology. Intervention in School and Clinic, 29(1), 36-40.
Reprinted electronically with permission. Summarized by Allison Osterloh.