Reinforcement

Machine learning is a kind of data analysis technique which provides a flexible way of learning information about the data, so that necessary action can be predicted accurately. Machine learning techniques will provide the way of analyzing and predicting the valuable information from the available data, so the further actions can be carried out accurately.

There are several kinds of machine learning approaches which are available based on their behavior and working procedure. Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence which aims at solving real life engineering problems. It provides the opportunity to learn without being explicitly programmed and it is based on the concept of learning from data.

It is so much ubiquitously used dozen a times a day that we may not even know it. The advantage of machine learning (ML) methods that are used for mathematical models, heuristic learning, knowledge acquisitions and decision trees for decision making. Thus, it provides controllability, observability and stability.

INTRODUCTION

An Artificial Intelligence (AI) program is called Intelligent Agent. Intelligent agent gets to interact with the environment. The agent can identify the state of an environment through its sensors and then it can affect the state through its actuators from fig.1.

The important aspect of AI is the control policy of the agent which implies how the inputs obtained from the sensors are translated to the actuators, in other words how the sensors are mapped to the actuators, this is made possible by a function within the agent.
The ultimate goal of AI is to develop human like intelligence in machines. However such a dream can be accomplished through learning algorithms which try to mimic how the human brain learns.

Machine learning, which is a field that had grown out of the field of artificial intelligence, is of utmost importance as it enables the machines to gain human like intelligence without explicit programming.

However AI programs do the more interesting things such as web search or photo tagging or email anti-spam. So, machine learning was developed as a new capability for computers and today it touches many segments of industry and basic science. There is autonomous robotics, computational biology.

Around 90% of the data in the world was generated in the last two years itself and the inclusion of machine learning library known as Mahout into Hadoop ecosystem has enabled to encounter the challenges of Big Data, especially unstructured data.

In the area of machine learning research the emphasis is given more on choosing or developing an algorithm and conducting experiments on the basis of the algorithm. Such highly biased view reduces the impact or real world applications.

In this paper the various applications under the appropriate category of machine learning has been highlighted. This paper makes an effort to bring all the major areas of applications under one umbrella and present a more general and realistic view of the real world applications. Apart from this two application suggestions have been presented forward. The field of machine learning is so vast and ever growing that it proves to be useful in automating every facet of life.

MACHINE LEARNING

One of the types of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Machine learning and the ability is given to the systems to study without being unequivocally planned [1]. The computer programs development is concentrated by the machine learning method and it can alter while it is reveled to the fresh data. Both the data mining and the machine learning process are similar one.

The patterns are searched in these both of the system. On the other hand, the data are extracted for an alternative for the individual’s knowledge in data mining applications. And the machine learning method is used to identify the patterns in data and process of the program respectively [2].

And also the machine learning method is used to classify as supervised or unsupervised. The previous data is applied to the new data in the supervised algorithms. The inferences from datasets are depicting in the unsupervised algorithms. The machine learning methodology is developed compared to the previous machine learning methodology because of the novel computing technologies [3].

From the pattern recognition this method is developed and the concept of the systems is studied without any planning to execute the particular performance; scientists are mostly concentrated on the artificial intelligence and it is required to watch suppose the systems could studied from the data. In the machine learning method the iterative phase is the significant for the reason that the designs are reveled to the fresh data, and this is capable to independently suitable. From the preceding computations learn to generate reliable, repeatable choices and outcomes.

Machine learning method is mainly used to the face-book news feed to the entire members feed. Suppose the member recurrently stops scrolling with respect to read or “like” a specified friend’s posts. The News Feed will begin to demonstrate the activity of the friends before in the feed. After the process, the software is specifically using the statistical analysis and predictive analytics to find out the patterns in the users data and the patterns are used to occupy the news feed.

TYPES OF MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHMS

• Supervised Learning

This learning process is based on the comparison of computed output and expected output, that is learning refers to computing the error and adjusting the error for achieving the expected output. For example a data set of houses of particular size with actual prices is given, then the supervised algorithm is to produce more of these right answers such as for new house what would be the price.

1. List of Common Algorithms
2. Linear Regression
3. Logistic Regression
4. Decision Trees

• Unsupervised Learning

Unsupervised learning is termed as learned by its own by discovering and adopting, based on the input pattern. In this learning the data are divided into different clusters and hence the learning is called a clustering algorithm. One example where clustering is used is in Google News (URL news.google.com). Google News groups new stories on the web and puts them into collective news stories.

List of Common Algorithms

1. k-means clustering,
2. Association Rules

• Semi-supervised Learning

In the previous two types, either there are no labels for all the observation in the dataset or labels are present for all the observations. Semi-supervised learning falls in between these two. In many practical situations, the cost to label is quite high, since it requires skilled human experts to do that.

So, in the absence of labels in the majority of the observations but present in few, semi-supervised algorithms are the best candidates for the model building. These methods exploit the idea that even though the group memberships of the unlabeled data are unknown, this data carries important information about the group parameters. [4]

• Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement Learning is a type of Machine Learning, and thereby also a branch of Artificial Intelligence. It allows machines and software agents to automatically determine the ideal behavior within a specific context, in order to maximize its performance. Simple reward feedback is required for the agent to learn its behavior; this is known as the reinforcement signal.

Reinforcement learning is a type of learning which makes decisions based on which actions to take such that the outcome is more positive. The learner has no knowledge which actions to take until it’s been given a situation. The action which is taken by the learner may affect situations and their actions in the future. Reinforcement learning solely depends on two criteria: trial and error search and delayed outcome

In order to produce intelligent programs (also called agents), reinforcement learning goes through the following steps:
Input state is observed by the agent.

Decision making function is used to make the agent perform an action.
After the action is performed, the agent receives reward or reinforcement from the environment.

The state-action pair information about the reward is stored.

• Supervised Learning

Linear Regression

Linear regression is a simple algorithm, and that makes it a great place to start thinking about algorithms in general. Here it is:

? = a * x + b

Read aloud, we’d say “y-hat equals a times x plus b.”

• y-hat is the output, or guess made by the algorithm, the dependent variable.
• a is the coefficient. It’s also the slope of the line that expresses the relationship between x and y-hat.
• x is the input, the given or independent variable.
• b is the intercept, where the line crosses the y axis.

Linear regression expresses a linear relationship between the input x and the output y; that is, for every change in x, y-hat will change by the same amount no matter how far along the line you are. The x is transformed by the same a and b at every point.

Linear regression with only one input variable is called Simple Linear Regression. With more than one input variable, it is called Multiple Linear Regression. An example of Simple Linear Regression would be attempting to predict a house price based on the square footage of the house and nothing more.

House price estimate = a * square footage + b

Multiple Linear Regression would take other variables into account, such as the distance between the house and a good public school, the age of the house, etc.

The reason why we’re dealing with y-hat, an estimate about the real value of y, is because linear regression is a formula used to estimate real values, and error is inevitable. Linear regression is often used to “fit” a scatter plot of given x-y pairs.

A good fit minimizes the error between y-hat and the actual y; that is, choosing the right a and b will minimize the sum of the differences between each y and its respective y-hat.

That scatter plot of data points may look like a baguette – long in one direction and short in another – in which case linear regression may achieve a fit. (If the data points look like a meandering river, a straight line is probably not the right function to use to make predictions.)

Logistic regression is not really regression, not in the sense of linear regression, which predicts continuous numerical values.
Logistic regression does not do that. It is actually a binomial classifier that acts like a light switch. A light switch essentially has two states, on and off. Logistic regression takes input data and classifies it as category or not category, on or off expressed as 1 or 0, based on the strength of the input’s signal.

Logistic regression takes input data and squishes it, so that no matter what the range of the input is, it will be compressed into the space between 1 and 0. Notice, in the image below, no matter how large the input x becomes, the output y cannot exceed 1, which it asymptotically approaches, and no matter low x is, y cannot fall below 0. That’s how logistic regression compresses input data into a range between 0 and 1, through this s-shaped, sigmoidal transform.

A decision tree is a series of nodes, a directional graph that starts at the base with a single node and extends to the many leaf nodes that represent the categories that the tree can classify. Another way to think of a decision tree is as a flow chart, where the flow starts at the root node and ends with a decision made at the leaves. It is a decision-support tool. It uses a tree-like graph to show the predictions that result from a series of feature-based splits.

Here are some useful terms for describing a decision tree:

• Root Node: A root node is at the beginning of a tree. It represents entire population being analyzed. From the root node, the population is divided according to various features, and those sub-groups are split in turn at each decision node under the root node.
• Splitting: It is a process of dividing a node into two or more sub-nodes.
• Decision Node: When a sub-node splits into further sub-nodes, it’s a decision node.
  Leaf Node or Terminal Node: Nodes that do not split are called leaf or terminal nodes.
• Pruning: Removing the sub-nodes of a parent node is called pruning. A tree is grown through splitting and shrunk through pruning.
• Branch or Sub-Tree: A sub-section of decision tree is called branch or a sub-tree, just as a portion of a graph is called a sub-graph.
• Parent Node and Child Node: These are relative terms. Any node that falls under another node is a child node or sub-node, and any node which precedes those child nodes is called a parent node.

Unsupervised Learning

1) K-Means Clustering:
Clustering or grouping is a type of unsupervised learning technique that when initiates, creates groups automatically. The items which possess similar characteristics are put in the same cluster. This algorithm is called k-means because it creates k distinct clusters. The mean of the values in a particular cluster is the center of that cluster.[6]

2) Principal Component Analysis

In Principal Component Analysis or PCA, the dimension of the data is reduced to make the computations faster and easier. To understand how PCA works, let’s take an example of 2D data. When the data is being plot in a graph, it will take up two axes. PCA is applied on the data, the data then will be 1D.

Recommender systems can be defined as a learning techniques by virtue of which online user can customize their sites to meet customer’s tastes.

For example, online user can get a rating of a product or/ and related items when he/she searching an items because of the existing recommender system. That is why it changed the way people find products, information, and even other people. There are mainly two approaches: content based recommendation and collaborative recommendation, which help the user for obtaining and mining data, making intelligent and novel recommendations, ethics. Most e-commerce site uses this system.

CONCLUSION

In this analysis work, various machine learning approaches which are used for the analyzing and predicting the valuable information about health care data are briefly evaluated and discussed. The algorithms under different categories of machine learning techniques are proposed and discussed briefly. And also evaluation of those research works based on their merits and demerits are provided.

From this evaluation it can be find that there are various algorithms from the categories supervised and unsupervised learning is proposed. But only fewer researches are introduced from the reinforcement learning algorithms. As the world is changing and the increased usage online application leads to dynamic growth of data which cannot be supported efficiently by the traditional supervised and unsupervised learning algorithm.

From this analysis it is proved that it is required to implement the novel approaches which can support the dynamic growth of data. It will be efficient if more researches have been conducted based on reinforcement learning algorithms.

REFERENCES

1. Witten, I.H., Frank, E., Hall, M.A. and Pal, C.J. Data Mining:Practical machine learning tools and techniques. Morgan Kaufmann, 2016.
2. Demšar, J., Zupan, B., Leban, G. and Curk, T. Orange: From experimental machine learning to interactive data mining. In European Conference on Principles of Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 2004, 537-539.
3. Bose, I. and Mahapatra, R.K. Business data mining-a machine learning perspective. Information & management 39 (3) (2001) 211-225.
4. https://towardsdatascience.com/types-of-machine-learning-algorithms-you-should-know-953a08248861[5]https://www.coursera.org/learn/recommender-systems
5. S. S. Shwartz, Y. Singer, N. Srebro, “Pegasos: Primal Estimated sub – Gradient Solver for SVM”, Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Machine Learning, Corvallis, OR, 2007
6. R. S. Sutton, “Introduction: The Challenge of Reinforcement Learning”, Machine Learning, 8, Page 225-227, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 1992
7. L. P. Kaelbing, M. L. Littman, A. W. Moore, “Reinforcement Learning: A Survey”, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 4, Page 237-285, 1996
8. P. Harrington, “Machine Learning in action”, Manning Publications Co., Shelter Island, New York, 2012

There are many different ways to give a child or group of children positive reinforcement. Though, individual and group positive reinforcement needs to be done in different ways ,there are 4 ways in which you may give positive reinforcement. There are natural positive reinforcers, such as being a team captain, free time, or sitting next to a friend. The second one is edible reinforcers, such as candy, or a pizza party. The fourth is social reinforcement, which is giving positive comments and attention.

All four methods are good to use on both individual and group positive reinforcement, but the same reinforcement isn’t as effective on both. For individual positive reinforcement, when a student is following classroom rules a student will get a token for great behavior throughout the day. This reinforcement provides the children with a reward for doing good and incentive to continue following the rules. Another great positive reinforcement for individuals is personally acknowledging the child for correct answers, good behavior, etc.

A simple smile, positive attention, or letting the parents know how great the student is doing is in most situations better than any physical reward, it boost the child’s self esteem and confidence in themselves. Competition tends to be a good motivator for kids. Another positive reinforcement for groups could be a party. When the entire class, reaches a certain level of attendance, the teacher could give the class a little party. Even though, not all the students where in class as much as others, it shows the student that you can have rewards when you try and how important it is to go to school.

The term “Sequence” of child development refers to the how we expect a child to develop from the day it was born to the age of 19. Child Development is the biological, physiological and all the emotional changes that happen during these formative years as the child goes from dependency to autonomy. These changes could be hugely influenced by genetics, events that occur whilst in the womb and during prenatal development and are usually included in most studies of child development.

Developmental changes are different. They occur as a result of a genetically controlled process called maturation or as a result of environmental factors and learning (home life and school for example) but these changes most commonly happen as a result of a combination of them both. It can also be a result of “human nature” which is the ability of the growing child to in fact learn from their environment. Human beings and especially children have a keen sense to adapt to their surroundings and this is what child development covers and includes.

A child’s development is continually happening and can be measured in many different ways and although the child will develop at different rates and in different ways, the sequence in which this happens will follow the same sort of pattern. This is because in most examples they need to learn one skill before they can move onto the next. An example is walking. The child will need to learn to walk before they can run or jump etc. Development in children is more rapid in the early stages with many milestones happening in quick succession.

This slows down as the child becomes a young adult with the milestones becoming further apart. (Cache children and young people’s workforce p49) The table below looks more closely at the aspects of child development.

THE DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES CHART

Infant – Birth to one year

• Uses hands and mouth to learn
• Forms a bond with parents, will begin to recognise faces and smiles, at about 6months will recognise parents and be fearful of strangers.
• Starts being ocal and using terms such as “mammy and ”
• Lifts head first then chest, rolls over, pulls to sit, crawls and stands alone
• Reaches for objects and picks up small items, clutches onto toys, e. g. Rattle

Toddler 1-2 years

• Begins to learn words for objects and people
• Learns that self and parent(s) are different or separate from each other, imitates and performs tasks, indicates needs or wants without crying
• Can follow simple instructions and say more words than just “mammy and daddy”
• Can walk, stop, jump and throw things like a ball. Unbuttons clothes, builds tower of 4 cubes, scribbles, uses spoon, picks up very small object

Preschool 2-5 years

• Understands things such as tired, hungry and cold, recognises colours, becomes aware of numbers and letters
• Begins to separate easily from parent(s), dresses with assistance, washes and dries hands, plays interactive games like tag. follows directions, can make simple sentences of two or three words, vocabulary increases Names pictures
• Runs well, hops, pedals tricycle, balances on one foot
• Buttons Clothes, builds tower of 8 cubes, copies simple figures or letters

School age 5-12 years

• Develops understanding of numeracy and literacy concepts, learns relationship between objects and feelings, acquires knowledge and understanding
• Acts independently, but is emotionally close to parent(s) dresses without help, join same sex play groups and clubs
• Defines words, know and describes what things are made of, vocabulary increases
• Skips, balances on one foot for 10 seconds, overestimates physical abilities
• Draws person with 6 parts, copies detailed figures and objects

12-18 years

• Understands abstract concepts like illness and death, develops understanding of complex ideas
• Experiences rapidly changing moods and behaviour, interested in peer group almost exclusively, distances from parent(s) emotionally, concerned with , likely to have first sexual relationship
• Uses increased vocabulary, understands more abstract concepts like grief
• May appear awkward and clumsy while learning to deal with rapid increases in size due to growth spurts
• Fully developed

18 +years

• Continues to develop the ability to make good decisions and to understand the complexity of human relationships
• Becomes independent form parent(s), own lifestyle, and career, social and economic changes, develop interests, chooses a partner, becomes a parent.
• Continues to develop knowledge and vocabulary of different styles of language used (Cache Children and young people’s workforce p51-66).

Child development is the term used to describe how the child will grow through a progression of developmental milestones. All children are believed to follow the same sequence of growth (the child will crawl, then stand, then walk for example) this is called the normative pattern. What we need to know is that not all children follow this pattern and for example some children will miss out stages altogether. One example of this is blind children and some children may decide to bottom shuffle and not bother with the “crawling phase”. The traditional approach to monitoring this is to use this normative measure which as I have mentioned already is the milestones in which we measure our child’s development.

These actually only show what most children can do and in reality many factors such as genetic, cultural and social factors will all have an effect on the child’s development and it is important we take this into account before labelling children “advanced or backward. ” The sequence of development refers to the stages of which a child develops; the rate of development is how fast the child is expected to achieve these developmental milestones. It is important to realise that the normative measurements can only indicate general trends and cannot be taken as “normal” . It is very important to realise that while the sequence of development may be somewhat the same in most children, the rate or speed in which the child develops can vary in many ways.

Things that have a massive effect on the rate of a child’s development can include environment (home life) culture (religious beliefs), ability, the amount of stimulation a child receives and input (from parents for example). It is important to understand the difference between the rate and the sequence of a child’s development as this will equip you with the knowledge you need in order to plan effectively with your child and will help you identify any concerns which you may have within the developmental process. (Cache Children and young people’s workforce) A child’s can be affected by many factors, with some having more of an affect than others.

They can be split into two categories which I will go into more depth later. These are Personal factors (such as genetics and health related issues) and External factors (such as poverty, , and social interaction.)

Personal factors

Parents pass these onto their children via their cells (the sperm and the egg). Alleles are different versions of the same gene and it’s this which can determine distinctive features such as eye colour, but also it is this which could lead to the inheritance of disorders such as cystic fibrosis. A baby’s development is also affected during pregnancy(before the birth) ,at the time of the birth and after the birth. Examples include a woman not knowing she is pregnant in the early stages and carrying on with all her bad habits (drinking, smoking, drug taking and diet. ) It’s at these crucial first 12 weeks in the uterus when all the essential organs are being formed. This is called the antenatal period.

A child being born before term (37 weeks) and therefore is born prematurely may need intensive care and this could affect development. Health Status A child’s health status can have a great effect on how it develops. This is determined by genetic inheritance but can also be affected by factors such as diet, environment, and what health care they receive. Some children are born with conditions which affect their development (these include Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis and heart defects). Other illnesses which may develop over time( including asthma and diabetes) will also have an effect on the child’s development if for example they have frequent visits to the hospital and miss school or their activaties are restricted because of their condition.

External Factors

• Poverty

This is the single biggest thing that threatens the healthy development of children and young people in Great Britain and can have an effect on all areas of a child’s development (Physical, Intellectual, Language, Emotional, Social, and Spiritual. ) This threat is part of the “cycle of deprivation” where poorer families will tend to live in poorer housing; they may also have a poor diet which will not provide all the right vitamins and minerals which will affect the child’s immune system which will have a knock on affect to the increased susceptibility to infectious diseases. Other things which are linked to poverty are:

• Accidents and illness

Children from poorer backgrounds are four times more likely to have an accident than those from higher up the social ladder. Quality of life: many children from lower classes have none or little toys, meals and clothes Poor diet: As I mentioned above a poor diet comes hand in hand with low income families as they more times than not have to buy the cheaper brands or processed convenience foods. Space to live and play: poorer children are more likely to be limited in their play space as the housing which they live will is more likely to be small and substandard. Growth: Poorer children are more likely to be smaller at birth and shorter in height.

• Education

Children from the lower classes are more likely to have poor attendance and less likely to do well.

• Long Term Effects

As adults they are more likely to be , be unemployed, and become involved in drug abuse, offending or be in abusive relationships. Social Interaction There is a lot of research to show that social isolation or a lack or opportunity’s to socialise ( playgroup, family members, mother and baby groups, toddler groups) can lead to early child development issues such as speech problems , the inability to share or in fact the ability to socialise with people in a civilised manner. The social environment in which a child is raised can have a dramatic effect on their development. An example of this would be a child who has had no contact with neighbours, family members or classmates.

• Family Environment and background

The situation at home will have a huge effect on a young person or child’s development. A child may seem physically healthy but if they are unhappy and are not enjoying their time at home this is will most definitely be affecting their development. Things a child needs include: Love and affection: A child needs and affection from their primary carers whoever this may be (Parents, Grandparents, Foster Parents etc. ) A child needs to feel safe and secure. Stimulation: a child needs the right amount of stimulation for healthy growth and development. Too little or too much will result in unhealthy development

• Opportunities to play

It is common sense that all children need to play to develop, then on from that, young people need to be given the opportunity to socialise and have leisure opportunity’s (such as learning an instrument or joining a sports club). A child’s social and emotional development is majorly influenced by the foundations which the family unit creates. Most parents will provide a nurturing unconditional loving family environment where their child will embrace and flourish within it. There are some carers or parents who, for a lot of different reasons will not provide this nurturing platform which all children need. Examples of this include carers with , drug misuse, marital conflict and violent behaviour.

Theories Regarding Child Development

Theories of child development can be said to be a set of principles that are designed to explain or predict some things. There have been many theories over the years by many scientists and psychologists and they have come up with a multitude of as to why a child will do certain things within their development. Theories not only provide an extended outline of understanding, they also allow educated guesses or hypotheses about some parts of a Childs development that are not clearly understood yet. These theories can provide a bounce board for other research but they also have some practical benefits.

They can be useful (if you are a parent, teacher, therapist or carer) as a reference point when you need to make important decisions within the Childs lives and a well-founded theory can provide valuable information in making responsible decisions. On the flip side though, some child development theories can be limiting and misleading and can in fact hinder or jeopardise a Childs development if the primary carer follows this theory to the letter. It is with this in mind that it is vital to compare and evaluate a lot of theories before acting upon them and it is with this comparing and contrasting that you will find that a lot of theories strengths and weaknesses will be highlighted. There are many theories out there and underneath I will be going into a few of them in more detail.

Alfred Bandura (Social learning theory)

Main theory: Learning takes place by imitation.

The suggests that people will learn from one another through observation, imitation, and modelling. This theory has been renamed “the ” this is to accommodate later developments of this theory. found that children tend to copy people they hold in high status (parents etc. ) especially so if these people are warm or have powerful personalities. This theory could lead us on to the fact that we should very aware of our behaviour in front of children and the effect this could have on them. Things to think about:

•  If children are smacked by adults will they be more likely to smack other children?
•  If children are shouted at by other adults, are they more likely to shout at other children? If children are given explanations, are they more likely to explain things to other
•  If children are comforted when they fall, are they more likely to do the same to others? How this affects practise
•  You will have to be very wary of the language and behaviour you use in front of your children.
•  It could a useful theory to use if you want your children to experience role play.
•   can only help the child. * This theory allows learning without direct experience.
•  Promotes . If you are positive this will rub off on the child. Transmission theories There are three main theorists involved in transmission theories.

John Locke

He thought that the child was an empty vessel and that they can be shaped by the adult and that children can be shaped by external factors and these are greater influences than any genetic involvements ()

Ivan Pavlov: (classical conditioning)

Pavlov’s theory was his famous conditioned Reponses in dogs experiment. Pavlov likes to be known as a physiologist rather than a psychologist as he believed the two were linked and were useful and scientific. Classical conditioning is the way in which responses are under the control of new stimulus. In his case the “conditioned” stimulus was a church bell and the “unconditioned” stimulus was food. His experiment involved feeding the dogs every time the church bell rang. This eventually produced an “unconditional” response from the dogs which was saliva flowing from the dogs mouth when the food appeared.

This would then gradually change into saliva being produced with any bell noise thus producing a “conditioned” response from the dogs. Food will produce salivation, but it’s this change in stimuli using classical conditioning which means that saliva is being produced with the sound of the bells and not the actual food.

Pavlov’s Experiment Burris Frederick Skinner: (operant conditioning)

Skinners main theory was one of that reinforcement and punishment moulds behaviour and children are conditioned by their experiences. maintained that learning occurred through responding to the environment and he coined the term “operant conditioning” to describe this phenomenon.

He did extensive research with animals, notably with rats and pigeons. It was Skinner who invented the famous box in which a rat learns to press a lever in order to obtain food. He gave rats a reward of food if they pressed the lever. This was . The desired behaviour was rewarded. Conversely, undesired be negatively reinforced. The rats would receive an electric shock every time they went near one area of a maze and they would then begin to avoid that area. The undesired behaviour was got rid of and the desired behaviour was encouraged.

How this affects Practise.

Positive reinforcemnet includes

• Special helper Kindness awards
• Points
• Stickers
• Special jobs
• Star of the week
• Trips out
• Priase or golden time.

Negative reinforcement includes

• Lines
• Detention
• Punishment
• Things taken from or kept from the child.

The effects this has on practise is that it will provide motivation for the child to behave and also to put that little bit more effort in than they would normally if they have something to aim for at the end of the week or day. It will give the child encouragement to repeat the good behaviour or effort upon recieving their treat or reward.

Social constructavist theory Jean Piaget:

This is the theory where all other theories are judged. Piaget’s main theory is that the development of children take place in distinct stages of cognitive development. The adult does have an influence but the child is building their own thinking systems. Piaget believed that interact to create cognitive development. He claims that children when learning:

• Go through stages and sequences in their learing
• Are active learners
• Use first hand Experiences and prior experiences in order to learn.
• Imitate and transform what they learn in to symbolic behaviour.

He devolped four stages of cognitive learing.

• Sensory motor stage (0-2 years) the child explores using its senses( sucking ,grasping etc) :
• Pre operational stage (2- 7 years)
• The toddler understands the use of symbols and language and this can be understood.
• Concrete operational stage (7-11 years) the child can now conserve and begin to reason logically. The child can now solve problems but their sucessful reasoning is largely limited to concrete situations.
• Formal operational years (11-16 years) the child is now developed and can show logical thinking and be able to work through abstract problems.

Piaget view on a child as an active learner.

Piagets three process:

•  Assimilation: this process is where people translate information in to a form they can understand.
• Accomodation: This is where people adapt current knowladge in reponse to new experiences.
• Equilibration: this is where people balance assimilation and accomodation to create a stable understanding. Implications in practise.

Piagets theory suggests that childrens distictive ways of thinking at different ages need to be considered when deciding how best to teach them. In addition beacuse children learn by mentally and physically interacting with their environment, relative phsical activites are important in educational practise.

How they influence current practise:

• The language we use with the children
• The resources you provide for the children
• The need to incorporate role play
• Activities( what to do with the resources at hand)
• The way in which we chack for understanding from the child
• We can question certain techniques

What are social constructivists? A social constructivist feels that the adult will play an active role in helping the children through their stages of development. Lev Vygotsky: He was a russian psychologist who died prematurely. His theory dates back to 1924 and he developed ideas that there was relationship between language and thinking and cognative development. His theory empahsised the roles of historical, cultural and sociual factors in cognition and argued that language was the most important symbolic tool provided by society. He said that the ZAD (the zone of actual develpment) is where the child will develop naturally with out the adults help.

He then says that the ZPD( the zone of proximal devlepment) is where the adult helps and he believes that adult intervention is crucial for the child to move between actual and proximal development. Jerome Bruner: he belived that learning was an “innate” function. He believes that children “do “ “imagine” then “translate” them into sense through schemas and that older children create symbols to imterpret what they have done.

Bruners three stages of development are:

• Enactive (0-1 yrs) Doing
• Iconic (1-7 yrs) Imagining
• Symbolic (7+) Using symbolic representations Bruner also has his theory of “scaffolding” where he does recognise the importance of adult support.

The easist way to get your head round this is to imagine the adult as the “scaffold” round the child, a bit like the scaffolding on a building. The adult moves and grows with the child offering them “ support “ and reinforcement on the way.

How this effects current practise

• We can use this to observe the children
• We can look at the prefered learnign styles considered
• This theory basically sums up the role of a teaching assistant “ supprort and reinforcement”
• Intorduce new concepts to expand learning
• Will influence the way in which you question a child

Humanistic Approach. Abraham Maslow and Mia Keller Pringle.

Maslow created a theory of human needs that was relevant to all ages not just for children. This was known as the humanistic approach.

He said that there was five levels of need and his theory suggested that each level had to be “met” before you could progresson to the next one. Maslow also said that it was almost impossible to reach your full potentiol if the lower needs were not sufficiently met.

Maslows Hierachy of needs.

There are many ways this theory could impact on practise:

• Keeping an eye out for the childs basic needs( Hungry, clothing, tired,)
• Awareness of bullying and social exclusion
• Having a homework club (where the older children could help the younger ones. )
• Praise (Give praise when a child Produces a good piece of work)
• Having a “Get to know you” activity or activities Understanding problems with a child( enabling you to asses the need of the child so he/she can progress)
• Promote a positive learning environment which is individual to the children.
• Devolop a “Culture” where the child feels comfortable to come forward and say they have a need that is not being met.

Mia Kellmer Pringle Pringle suggested that there are four primary needs that have to be met from birth. Love and security: this is probably the most important one of the four as this provides the basis for all future relationships. A child will also have objects as “security blankets” ie a favorite toy which they will use when they feel threatened or upset.

The child will want routine which helps with their development and also they will need attachment which comes in the form of a caring a stable family. New experiences: this is a fundemantal requirement for cognitive development. In ealry life the act of playing and using new language as well as revisiting previous experiences and accesing new and demanding phsical and mental challenges all help in the childs cognitive development. This goes with them through to adolecence where they will start experimenting with boyfriends/ girlfriends and get involved in team roles etc. Praise and recognition: Strong incentives are vital for a child who is going through a difficult time.

If a child is constantly put down or told they it becomes a self fullfilling prophecy where the child has low expectations leads them onto low achievement. This will eventually lead onto the child never getting into any situations where they feel they will fail.

Responsibility: It is also very inportant to structure the childs environment so he/she have challenges which reflect their interests and ability levels, this will encourage independance and co operation. Pringle goes along the same lines as Maslow so their impacts on practise are similar.

• Produce a routine the children are familiar with Plan trips out( get them interested in a or have a themed week)
• Recognise cultural norms
• Make a child feel valued and Individual Have a School council (promoting responsibilty)
• Welcome the child to his/her new setting( name on the peg, “get to know you activites)
• Give them jobs( registor monitor,handout milk etc)

Leave it to nature Theories ( laissez faire model)

Rousseau: was an 18th century philsopher who thought that the child will ”learn naturally” and they were genetically engineered to learn certain things at certain times. He thought that a childs learning unfolds like a flower and that babbling leads onto talking which leads onto writing and reading, the same way kicking the legs and crawling leads onto walking and running.

This theory suggests that adults mould the childs development through the environment they create and this “environment” will support the childs learning and help it to unfold. One example being speech. If a childs environment is all English speaking, the child will speak english, if a child hears both chinese and English it will become multi ligual and speak both languages. This view suggests that the child will do what they need to devolp and learn naturally. It sees the child as “active” in their own learing and as the adult do not need to act this is sometimes reffered to as the laissez faire view of how children learn. Rousseau mapped a set of developmental norms charting expected development.

He believed that development followed a sequence and identified ‘normal’ age ranges of achievement. A depressing approach for children with special needs. Gessel: In the 1930s he mapped out a set of developmental norms which charted expectent development in children. These norms mapped out the childs expected development and this followed a sequence which identified the normal age ranges of achievement. This was also a very depressing approach for any children who have disabilites or learning needs. Gessels spiral of development. How this approach impacts on current practise. You will have an understanding that you can observe and not always intervene in a childs behaviour.

Case Incident 2 PROFESSIONAL SPORTS: REWARDING AND PUNISHING THE SAME BEHAVIOUR QUESTION: 1. What type of reinforcement schedule does random drug testing represent? Is this type of schedule typically effective or ineffective? Answer: The type of reinforcement schedules that random drug testing represent is the variable interval type. As defined, this type of schedule occurs when a response is rewarded after an unpredictable amount of time has passed. In the case, the reinforcement schedule is done randomly and unexpected.

It is typically effective because athletes not aware of the test and when these tests will be taken place. Therefore, athletes are unprepared. QUESTION: 2. What are some examples of behaviors in typical organization that supervisors reward that may actually be detrimental to others or to the organization as a whole? As a manager, what might you do to try to avoid quandary? Answer: It’s when the athletes are taking steroids. When athletes take steroids to enhance their performance abilities, they are misleading their managers and their fans.

At first, they will be rewarded. Like they can earn more profit and increase their popularity, But in the end, when it is discovered that the athlete were taking steroids, he destroys his team’s reputation and of course his own reputation and also the loyalty the fans had for him. If I was a manager, what I might do in order to avoid this quandary, if I was made aware of someone using steroids, I would do a random drug testing as soon as possible instead of having the whole team suffer for that one insubordinate athlete. QUESTION: 3.

If you were the commissioner of baseball, what steps would you take to try to reduce the use of steroids in baseball? Is punishment likely to be the most effective deterrent? Why or why not? Answer: Yes, punishment is the most effective deterrent. Because punishment is everyone’s scared of. It’s the only way how can they make their selves responsible. If I were a baseball commissioner, I will enforce a policy that will monitor athlete’s condition regarding the usage of steroids and enforce heavy punishment for those athletes that will be caught using steroids

When we are communicating with all children and younger people we must treat them all the same. We should be clear and concise. Instructions should be clear and the same E. G. please can you tidy up. Then we should keep repeating please can you tidy up, please can you tidy up, if a child (3-6years) was asked can you put toys away, they can get confused with what they have been asked to do. We can ask the younger child to repeat what the instruction was so we are aware that they have understood what was said to them. Children of the age3-6 are using their grammar a lot more.

At this age they can exaggerate very well when telling something. If they are hurt they might tell fibs. Verbalising whilst playing is very common for 3-6 yrs. whilst communicating with these small children I would get down to their level. With the 6-12yrs they tend to ask lots of question. At this age most of the children set their own goals to achieve. Fact and fantasy are distinguished by now. The 6-12 age groups will need to have boundaries in place. They might also need support if they have a falling out with friends.

This is the age when they speak about transitions in life. Use language to predict and draw conclusions. Use long and complex sentences. Understand other points of view and show that they agree or disagree. Understand comparative words e. g. ‘it was earlier than yesterday’. Keep conversations going by giving reasons and explaining choices? Start conversations with adults and children they don’t know. Understand and use passive sentences e. g. “the thief is chased by the policeman”. 12-18 yrs. olds will still look for adult support even though they are striving to be an adult.

As teens seek independence from family and establish their own identity, they begin thinking abstractly and become concerned with moral issues. We need to be approachable and also remind them of confidentially. Not all children will like face to face talking so it might be best to speak at side of them. Teens should be able to process texts and abstract meaning, relate word meanings and contexts, understand punctuation, and form complex syntactic structures. However, communication is more than the use and understanding of words; it also includes how teens think of themselves, their peers, and authority figures.

Resolving conflict with age groups. Ask each individual what happened and why. Encourage both children to come up with ideas to resolve the problem. Do not judge either child or be negative about their suggestions. Make it clear that you want to work toward a solution that will make them both happy. Encourage the children to listen to each other, including why they believe the conflict started. This effectively forces the children to accept that there is another person with feelings involved. Children are often totally unaware of how their behavior affects other people.

Help both children understand what the end goal is; this may involve being very clear about what would be a good end result, an answer that suits both children. Ask both children to discuss the incident and to tell you how they have decided to handle it. Be sure to praise the children for handling the problem themselves and reassure them that you know there will be no future conflict between them. When your child gets angry, give them time and space to calm down before trying to resolve the situation. Explain later that it is difficult to think of good solutions when we are angry.

We help children to learn the value of positive relationships in many ways. We promote and reward positive behaviour, encourage turn taking, we ensure we are good role models; we encourage sharing and build self-esteem of the use of praise and reward, with either sticker, certificates, merits ECT. We also encourage the children to be kind to each other. As adults we must respect other peoples view even if we don’t agree as everyone is entitled to their opinion. Always show you’re interested in what people are saying, show concern if needed and be a listening ear.

Respect can be gained by talking to a child at their level and understanding them, for example looking at children at eye level whilst talking to them increases mutual respect. Keeping calm and talking in a “normal” friendly tone also increases mutual respect. Listening to children and addressing their needs. Role models are inspirational people who encourage others to progress and work toward self-improvement. They are especially important for today’s youth and can play an important role in shaping our society.

Role models can influence a young one’s values, beliefs, and attitudes, which will shape the person that one will grow to be. Role models have the ability to focus their efforts on others rather than on themselves and they are selfless. Role models inspire others not only by their words, but more so by their actions that move us to do the same. Role models help others by offering good examples, by inspiring others realize the endless possibilities to reach their goals, and by moving others to be the best that they can be. Children will copy behaviour so I use manners the children will copy.

Influenced by the people around them affects children Reinforcement is used to help increase the probability that a specific behavior will occur with the delivery of a stimulus/item immediately after a response/behavior is exhibited. Negative reinforcement is often confused with punishment. Positive reinforcement is a very powerful and effective tool to help shape and change behavior. Positive reinforcement works by presenting a motivating item to the person after the desired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior more likely to happen in the future.

We do this with either thumb up, smiling, verbal praise. Negative reinforcement is when a certain stimulus/item is removed after a particular behavior is exhibited. We can change seat or room. The likelihood of the particular behavior occurring again in the future is increased because of removing/avoiding the negative stimuli. Communication can be hard with young people as well as children. Each difficulty has its own effect. This could be how they learn, or understand what is being said to them. They will need time and to feel less pressured when speaking.

Someone with Hearing difficulties would benefit from BSL( British sign Language), difficulty with attention or following complex directions in the classroom would benefit from being near the teacher or having 1-1, difficulty retaining information could have pictures or tape recorders,, poor vocabulary achievement could have extra time, difficulties with grammar, difficulties with organization of expressive language or with narrative discourse, difficulties with academic achievement, reading, and writing, unclear speech, persistent stuttering or a lisp.

Most children tent to communicate through text and emails. Sometimes we need to change the way we communicate with people. This will depend on the individual. We often do this without knowing we have changed. Eye contact is best for non- hearing as they can lip read. Other ways we can communicate are via letters, email, using different color paper. We might need to speak slowly and more clearly. Depending on the type of visual impairment and what adaptations are necessary, I will produce reading books and class material in large print or braille.

Touch typing programmers might be introduced, using a screen reader. Visual timetables, pictures, symbols or photographs are also a good way to communicate. For younger children, a visual time line can be effective, labels for equipment and places for specific activities, pictures, symbols, photographs or written labels. Visual displays of topics or current activities can for some children can cause overload.