To promote appropriate behavior strategies in children with Down syndrome, you should ignore which type of behavior and reinforce which?

• A. Negative; Positive
• B. Positive; Negative
• C. Aggressive; Cooperative
• D. Quiet; Loud

Answer: (B)

When shaping behavior, the most effective approach is to reward the actions you want to see and reduce attention to the actions you don’t want. For children with Down syndrome, that means ignoring mild negative behaviors so they don’t gain attention from them, and reinforcing positive, cooperative, or quiet behaviors to increase how often those are exhibited. Positive reinforcement strengthens desirable behavior, while not reinforcing the undesired behavior helps diminish it over time. The other options would either reduce attention to good behavior or reinforce the bad, which can make the undesired actions more likely to recur. So the best strategy is to ignore negative behavior and reinforce positive behavior.