Insights from Grant - a father, teacher & Screentreat user

Grant is not only one of the Screentreat early adopters, but also has a great deal of experience as a primary school teacher and holds a degree in behavioral science. We had a great chat about forming good habits for kids and why he loves Screentreat:

"Yes, I worked as a second-grade teacher for ten years. But before that, I studied Behavioral Science. As a part of my undergrad degree, I trained rats and pigeons to do tricks. This made a number of my fellow educators hesitant to take my advice about how to treat seven-year-old children. However, whenever my school principal needed to show an educator what good classroom management looked like, I was always the first stop.

I remember the day that I was asked to teach a group of teachers’ aides about small group instruction. They weren’t too happy about having me teach them about behavior management. After all, they had been instructing small groups while I was still in elementary school myself. I would tell them, “One of the greatest secrets is knowing the difference between a bribe and a reinforcer.”

In simple terms, a reinforcer is a consequence that 1) follows a behavior, and 2) makes that behavior more likely in the future. The primary mistake that these teachers’ aides were making was not WHAT their reinforcer was, but rather, WHEN they were given. What typically happened is that a student was told, “If you [desired behavior], I will give you a gummy bear.” Then, when the student DOESN’T engage in the desired behavior, the aide will remind the student of the rule again and again. When the behavior still doesn’t happen, the aide might give a gummy bear anyway, hoping that doing so will jump-start the student’s good behavior. Doing so undermines the aide, because it changes the gummy bear from a reinforcer into a bribe.

What’s the difference? A bribe is delivered BEFORE the desired behavior; a reinforcer is delivered AFTER the desired behavior. A bribe hopes for improvement; a reinforcer rewards improvement. This is why I love and endorse Screentreat. My children are expert negotiators. But Screentreet only allows them to access their devices AFTER they have completed the required behavior. I have been shocked at how many screen control apps are missing this key feature. Within a week, my children went from whining about the rules to completing tasks without supervision.

Give Screentreat a try and see what I mean."