Children should be offered incentives for doing

right, rather than punishment for wrongdoing

Good evening everybody,

First of all , let’s thank to God who has given us joyful , blessing , and health so we
can be gather in this class. The honorable teacher of IEC is Sir Aristo , and the most beloved
friends. Today , I stand here for deliver my speech. The Topic of My speech is “Children
should be offered incentives for doing right, rather than punishment for wrongdoing.”

When every kids born in every family, all of them are same. They just like a piece of
white paper. They don’t know anything about the real world. So, that are the function of
parents to write the right things on the paper. But, when the parents already have taught a
good manner to their children. Sometimes children just missunderstand about the manner and
do the opposite of the good manner. That are the usual things happen with children and
humans. Because we can’t control all of their mind. If children always do the wrong things,
that can be their behavior until the future.

Human psychology is, perhaps, one of the most interesting subjects of study. We all learn
from our experiences which shape our behavior. But, which one is more effective and works
better on behavior between reward and punishment? Most people are taught to refrain from
engaging in a certain behavior by being given punishments that create negative feelings. This
helps maintain discipline at home, school and even organizations. However, it has long been
debated as to which one works better on behavior. If you are an ardent believer of using
punishments to modulate a person's behavior, you may have to change your whole belief
system because, a recent study conducted by researchers at Harvard University discovered
that most people function better in an environment that consists of positive elements that act
as rewards. B.F. Skinner, the father of operant conditioning who advocated radical
behaviorism, attempted to understand the relationship between behavior conditioning and
modification. He also gave us a new school of psychology called the"experimental analysis
of behavior" which studies the effect of reward and punishment on human psychology. Since
then, the case of 'rewards vs. punishment' has often been debated upon.

Is Reward Better than Punishment? YES. A person is motivated to learn new behavior if
there is an opportunity to gain incentives. Since, a reward is a great way of expressing
appreciation or acknowledging the efforts of another person in a positive light, rewards are
better than punishments! However, for rewards to be effective, three conditions must be
fulfilled;
 The subject MUST be interested in the reward
 The reward must be given AFTER accomplishment of the desired action
 Performance must EXCEED normal standards

The failure of achievement of desired results occurs due to inability to fulfill all the three
requisites. Also, it must be noted that the rewards presented not only cause behavior
modification, they also lead to creation of values which set the trend for rewards that must be
bestowed in future as a part of positive reinforcement. I would like to point out here
that, extraordinary results beyond the capabilities of the subject should not be expected. The
opportunity to give a reward can also be used to optimum advantage by teaching values that
leave a permanent imprint on a person's behavior and hence, can be observed in the long
term. By doing so, you can ensure that the benefits of rewarding are not limited to a short
span of time. For instance, an employee works in the company for the reward of an attractive
monthly salary. Till the time it is valuable to him, he will continue to strive for productivity
and optimum performance in order to achieve maximum rewards. However, when the salary
loses its appeal due to any reason, he will start to slack and may even quit his job himself.
Similarly, bright students often achieve good results for the incentive of top grades, whereas,
average or below average students may not be attracted by the pride attached with an 'A'
grade. In such a scenario, using rewards to motivate students to perform well is a good option
rather than condemning them for their failure to do so.

The Consequences of Rewarding:

Rewards can also have negative effects. While the above examples illustrate the occurrence
of a pleasant event to reward an activity, negative rewards refer to removal of a negative
object or preventing the occurrence of a negative event in lieu of desired performance. This is
also called negative reinforcement (not punishment). On the other hand, a punishment only
helps to decrease the incidence of an action or behavior by enforcing an undesirable stimulus.
However, the effectiveness of punishments can be deduced from the findings of a study on
this matter by Tulane University. It was found that children who were spanked at the age of 3
years became more aggressive as observed after 2 years. This, perhaps, explains why most
couples end up fighting more in a relationship once either partner starts nagging. The study
revealed that punishments such as spanking are an ineffective method for behavior
modification in children aged below 12 years and should not be used, otherwise they act as a
stimulus for bad behavior in the later years.
The impact of Punishment:

But, if punishment is used among children older than that or in young adults, it brings anxiety
based along the lines of "what will happen if I don't?". For alteration in behavior to take place
and new behavior to be adopted, the source of stimuli employed must be consistently exposed
to the targeted subject. If it is inconsistent, behavior may change only temporarily or not at
all. But, an inconsistent reward or punishment may be effective when it comes from a
powerful or a highly authoritative source. Otherwise, a favorable outcome to be achieved is
generally achieved from rewards because most people are inclined to learn from positive
experiences faster than negative ones. Punishments harbor negative feelings and often end up
being a 100% failure, especially among kids. People often try to resist any form of control.
Punishments can only bring forced discipline which ends up backfiring at some point when a
person cannot handle the stress and goes into a 'fight or flight' mode. If you are one of those
parents who use means of punishment, especially physical, to control your children, you may
be hampering their mental development and growth of their IQ! In a debate over reward vs.
punishment, rewards emerge as a superior technique of behavior modification and win hands
down.
The conclusion of this speech is Children should be offered incentives for doing right, rather
than punishment for wrongdoing. Because, when you give reward to the children, they knew
that is the right things to do. And they will repeat it again and again.