Clicker training a baby. I’ve already discovered that these four words elicit a strikingly wide set of responses. “How could you even say that?”, “Huh?”, “Do you really think a baby’s smart enough to do that?”, “Interesting idea,” and “You can not do that to my grandson!” are a few examples. Leaving out the emotional responses for the moment, we seem to be left with either explaining what clicker training is or arguing whether our son might be approaching our dog in intellect. I haven’t actually spoken to anyone who had any real constructive ideas unfortunately.
For context, we have a four-month-old son and a four-year-old Irish Terrier. Back a few years ago, we had talked about the idea of clicker training an infant based on some passages in Don’t Shoot the Dog, but hadn’t done any work to find research or anecdotes about doing this.
We haven’t tried anything yet, because of our weakness in selecting primary reinforcers. We probably could identify some primary reinforcers that would work now such as giving him support to get into a standing position, but we’re pretty lazy and so we figure we will wait until he can eat those little puff baby food and use those as the primary reinforcer.
I really have not seen anything about this idea, so I can’t even guess what will come of it. I think it could be a cool idea, because as the kid ages and gets money, we could transition to a clicker with a counter and have the number on the clickers translate into some amount of money, making it not just a solution for short-term things, affecting the behavior of a toddler, but to more long-term parenting.
Anyone know any blogs or webpages or anything that address this idea? Anyone tried it yourself? If so, what behaviors did you try to effect? Were you trying to substitute mutually-exclusive behaviors for those you don’t like? Did you use the clicker in a style more similar to the sports arena and shape the development of motor skills?
I was planning on starting just by charging the clicker and seeing how that process goes – how long it takes, how well he really gets it, etc. Then, I don’t really have a plan for how to use it other than a general feeling that it will hopefully allow us to avoid some of the positive punishment method of “no, no, no …”
I welcome not only the information I mentioned above, but any thoughts including criticism.
clicker training baby humans
i have twins at one year old and have just started to play with the clicker and them.
weve only been playing for a couple of days now i just wanted to get the feel of what they may think of it.
i first started with a tea towel on the floor (this was my target) and each time either baby crawled toward it i clicked and rewarded with lots of praise. after 3 goes it was clear that my little boy knew that when he landed on the tea towel he would recieve or cue me for praise. the light went on and he really enjoyed the game. my thoughts were that in time this could act as a reward mat/teatowel in its own right and could be a place to sit calmly perhaps whilst being read a story.
i did feel he lost interest a little too quickly therefore thought that the reward maynot have been either delivered right or that he`d prefer some kind of food reward (i need to research more on reinforcers for children) or even the fact that he is only one and his attention span would be limited.
my next step is
i am going to teach the target as in to touch something i can hold and remove easily to ensure the clicker is understood before moving back to the mat.
my theory is to train something they require throughout there lives and firstly that will be
1) manners(please and thankyou) even if it starts with sign language
2) emotional stability-they appear to be getting frustrated with me as we don't have a clear form of communication
3) perhaps motor skills (as in standing and walking) self feeding and drinking
i want to train a good foundation before moving on to actual academic or physical concepts
thats as far as ive got at the minute
i was concerned about how this may affect them after speaking with friends and family but if i can train my horse to have manners and to problem solve for himself opening that door for my children would be amazing
its very exciting and i truely believe theres a place for this
any imput would be greatly received
i hope this helps
why not? :)
I don't have any kids of my own, but lately I've been around a number of people who have young kids or are pregnant. It made me start thinking about how I might clicker train a baby that was nonverbal and essentially helpless. I think I'd use attention/touch as the primary reinforcer, or maybe access to interesting toys. Here are a few of my thoughts:
CRIB TRAINING - mark and reinforce (with attention) when baby is not crying or at least calmer...try to avoid the baby training the adult to soothe him/her on cue
FOOD - if food is rejected at feeding time, put it away for some time rather than cajoling the baby to eat...hopefully this will produce a baby that eats promptly
HANDLING - desensitize baby to all sorts of handling to make doctor visits, baths, dressing, etc. as easy as possible
TARGETING - teach "high five" and maybe "foot five" to keep baby busy during boring times...and if nothing else it would be cute
Carolyn
A possible resource for you
You asked if anybody knows resources about "training" childs with R+. So perhaps the books of Dr. Glenn I. Latham could be inteteresting for you. They seem to be based on positive reinforcement and some negative punishment for improper behaviors. I know that amazon.com provides these books, but I still have not read one yet.
I do not have any children yet. So I apologize for possibly sounding like a smart aleck. Actually I try positive reinforcement with my nieces, two and five years old girls. They respond very, very well. Instead of destructing the house, hitting her sister or nagging the grown-ups, the older one clears the table only for a few compliments about her "adult" skills. If somebody asks her if she needs help, she proudly tells him that she can do this on her own.
Beneficial side effects are:
a) she loves me and really tries to behave well in my presence
b) her parents think I am kind of a pied piper for children, nothwithstanding I have no further experiences with being a nanny.
These family celebrations are so boring for her with everybody just sitting and eating and talking. So she does nearly anything to get attention. I try to give her positive attention for behaving well and playing equitably, but sadly some of my relatives only get on alert when she is misbehaving. Of course she feels reinforced by all the attention she gets when she acts like a howling derwish! Definitely these relatives do not think like clicker trainers.
The younger one is a lot more independent and not so easy to reinforce. But as she is not on the lookout for attracting interest, she leaves the furniture alone. I am thinking about using TAGteaching to help her to eat with knive and fork, but i am sure her mother will not allow me to try. Oddly enoug it seems to be O.K. for people to scold other peoples´ children, but not to motivate them obviously.
I am sorry for not being able to share more experiences. I do not know abot the daily straints of being a parent, so perhaps it would be all too supernatural to be always reinforcing and loving and so on. I hope that in this case variable reinforcement will start to work.