The Work of B.F. Skinner

This chapter talks about the history of a controversial psychologist of the twentieth century: Burrhus Frederick (B. F.) Skinner and his principles to human behavior, and Skinner's work in early childhood settings. Skinner's work was based on observation, measurement, and induction. Knowledge of the principles discovered by Skinner, which have been empirically demonstrated to have profound and lasting effects on humans, will provide professionals in the field of early childhood with the tools they need to enhance learning in the children who cross their paths. For decades, researchers have demonstrated the application of Skinner's findings to develop a technology to address challenging behavior in individuals of all ages, with and without disabilities. An application of Skinner's work is attention to the three term contingency consisting of the stimulus, response, and consequence. Across teaching opportunities, the interventionist inserts a delay between the discriminative stimulus and the prompts.