The 80% Rule Example

It isn’t necessary to measure an 80% accuracy rate precisely in your informal learning games and other teaching and learning activities. But it is important to ensure your child is responding correctly most of the time so that you can genuinely praise him for his correct responses. Here is an example of adjusting the difficulty to meet your child’s ability during a learning game:
Example: A father wants to help his son learn to tell the difference between numbers through the use of an educational game. When the atmosphere is relaxed and it is play-time for the child, Dad suggests that they play the number game together. The two start playing and the child responds correctly to only half of the items. The parent immediately moves the level of difficulty back to where the child is answering about eight out of every ten problems correctly. This gives the child a feeling of accomplishment, but the level of difficulty is still challenging, as evidenced by the few incorrect responses that are made. After some time, the child begins to show disinterest. Although Dad is anxious for the child to continue, he stops the game without pressure or unpleasantness. He praises his son for success even though he would have been pleased with more progress.

Comment: This parent knows that successful learning will not continue if the child experiences failure too many times. Thus, Dad adjusted the level of difficulty so that most of his son’s attempts were successful. The child ended the game too soon to please the parent, but when gentle persuasion did not entice the child to keep playing, Dad did not pressure his son. The child increased his ability to discriminate between numbers and had fun with Dad as a result of this well-conducted activity.

What do you think?  Please let me know if you are reading this blog.

The 80% Rule Part 3

As your child masters new skills and concepts, there must be sufficient challenge along with successes. If the situation is so easy that the child is responding correctly 100% of the time, she has already learned the task, and the level of difficulty must be advanced.


Success is contagious. Let your child’s joy in each success lead him to conquer new, bigger challenges. In our eagerness to get a child to move ahead rapidly, or in our concern that she may be behind, it is very easy to push too hard or to move the child to a level of difficulty where her responses are most often incorrect. This is self-defeating and must be avoided at all costs. As you and your child work together, it will become increasingly easy for you to adjust the level of difficulty to meet your child’s needs.

The 80% Rule Part 2

If you find yourself in the position of correcting your child almost constantly, you must immediately simplify the activity to fit your child’s level of understanding and proficiency or the whole thing is likely to turn sour very quickly. If you are outside pitching a baseball to your son from 10 yards away and he misses it almost every time, then you must change your approach. Scoot closer and continue scooting closer (and continue to praise his efforts) until he can hit the ball about 8 out of every 10 times you pitch it.

Please share your thoughts and experiences.

The 80% Rule

With the basics of reinforcement understood, we are now ready to move on to another aspect of reinforcement theory: the 80% rule. The 80% rule is effective with virtually any child in any situation. In order for a learning activity to be rewarding or reinforcing to a child, it must be sufficiently pleasurable for him. Experience shows that for a learning activity to be pleasurable for a child, he should be able to respond correctly 80% of the time.


For example, if you are working on color identification with your young child by throwing him one colored ball at a time and letting him tell you what color it is, he should be able to respond correctly 8 out of every 10 times you throw a ball. If you are using four balls of different colors and your child gets every second ball color wrong, then the activity is too hard for him. In order to keep the activity reinforcing to him, remove two colored balls and play with only two balls of different colors. If he can say the correct color 8 out of every 10 times, then the activity is appropriate for his skill level in identifying colors. On a later occasion, add back in one ball color at a time until he is proficient at identifying the original colors and the new colors about 80% of the time.


In any learning activity, it is important for your child to hear consistent praise and encouragement from you. But without following the 80% rule, even your best efforts to praise will not be enough. It is simply not reinforcing enough for a child to hear time after time, “You got it wrong again, but keep trying! That was a really good try!” If a child continuously responds incorrectly, it ceases to matter how much you praise him for his efforts. It will not be fun or satisfying for him to be wrong most of the time.


What do you think about the 80% rule?  Please let me know your thoughts. 

Using the Reinforcement Principle in your Home

Consider these additional examples involving reinforcement theory. They may help you think through how you can use the reinforcement principle in your home to obtain the results you want:


Example: A 3½-year-old child keeps begging to eat ice cream between meals. The parent has determined that the child’s nutrition is adequate and that she should not be hungry an hour after she has eaten. The child is persistent and increases the pressure until the parent gives in “just to keep her quiet.”

Comment: This is applying reinforcement to develop undesired behavior and bad eating habits. The child learns from the success of pressure and persistence that the parent will eventually give in to her demands. The behavior of whining and the habit of eating sweets between meals are unwittingly reinforced.

Example: Mom is tired and hurrying to get dinner on the table. Her five-year-old keeps trying to get her attention to show her the pictures he just drew. He tries to show her several times, but each time she ignores him or says, “I don’t have time to look at that right now.” She does not look at him or respond sufficiently for the boy’s liking. In his frustration, he hits his little sister as she walks by. Mom then gives the boy her full attention; she looks at him and addresses him directly.

Comment: Although the boy is being scolded, he has gotten his mom’s attention, which is what he wanted. Thus, he is learning that hitting gets mom’s attention. He is “reinforced” for hitting when his mother refuses to pay attention to him unless he hits. Although being scolded may not seem to be a “pleasurable” reward, some children consider any attention from their parent (even negative attention) better than no attention at all.

The mother was busy and needed to continue her dinner preparation. But it may have been wiser to look directly at her child and say, “Show me your picture while I work.” After a 20 second explanation from the boy of what he had drawn, the mother could then smile and say, “Wow. Thanks for showing me. I really like the way you colored that mountain. Could you show me your other pictures after dinner?” For the sacrifice of 30 seconds, the mother could have reinforced the behaviors of both artistic expression and kind conversation rather than reinforcing the need to hit.

Example: A little girl proudly holding a broom says, “Look, Dad! I swept the floor!” Dad looks over and sees a small scattering of crumbs still littering the kitchen floor. Dad says, “Thanks so much for sweeping. I didn’t even ask you to! You’re really growing up and becoming responsible.”

Comment: Dad wisely reinforced the desirable behavior of helping without being asked instead of focusing on the less important factor of how well the child was able to perform the task. If a child has done her best, let it be enough. Praise her for what she has done instead of scolding her for what she has left undone. There will be other opportunities for teaching her how to effectively use the dust pan. If you want her to continue to sweep the floor, praise her for doing it. Is she likely to sweep the floor again if her initial efforts to do so were rewarded with criticism? Reinforcement principle says no.

Please let me know what you think about these examples?  How do you think you the reinforcement principle can help you in your home? 

Reinforcing Desirable Skills and Behaviors with your Child

Applying the reinforcement principle is key to helping your child develop both learning skills and desirable behaviors. If a child is consistently reinforced for performing a certain behavior such as making her bed, she is likely to continue making her bed. A simple statement like, “You made your bed! Thank you so much!” accompanied by a hug is usually sufficient reinforcement for a child. If a parent fails to notice or reward a child for the desirable things she does, the child is less likely to continue doing them. So, your job is to think about what behaviors you want your child to persist in doing, and reinforce her for doing them.


Undesirable behaviors can also be “accidentally” reinforced if parents are not conscious of what responses they give to certain behaviors. For example, if a child cries when she is refused a toy at the store and the parent responds by “caving in” and buying her the toy, the parent is encouraging—or reinforcing—the child’s undesirable behavior of crying to get her way.

What do you think? 

Excessive Demands on your Time?

As you continue to follow this blog, you may become concerned about what could seem to be excessive demands upon your time to do all of the activities recommended. You will find, however, that most of the upcoming recommended activities do not require additional time from busy parents. As you learn to recognize opportune moments to teach your child, you will find that much of your teaching occurs in the natural course of a day. You will teach as you dress her in the morning, as you feed her, as you play with her during the day, while you take her shopping, or when you put her to bed at night. The techniques are casual; the teaching is incidental and related to the real-life experiences of parent and child.


This blog promised to give you one answer to the question, “How do I find the right balance between appropriately challenging my child with love and pushing him too hard?” The first answer is: PLAY with him. As often as it is feasible, play what your child wants to play when he wants to play it and look for chances to teach as you go. If your teaching is child-centered and child-directed your child is not likely to feel pushed, hurried or forced into learning. He will learn to love learning because he loves playing with you.

Follow Your Child's Feelings

Whatever activities you and your child choose to play with together, remember that activities will be most effective when they are child-centered and child-directed. As you teach your child and acquaint her with the many wonders around her, let your child’s feelings and desires be your guide. Let her be involved in deciding which activities you will do together and how long they will last. If your daughter gets tired of drawing pictures and letters on the driveway with sidewalk chalk, let her be done! Do not insist that she continue an activity that she has clearly lost interest in. If your son gets bored of sorting marbles into groups of like colors with you after five minutes, move on to something else! Do not force him to sort them all by size as well before you let the activity die. Let each activity be a success in its own right, no matter how small or how short.

It is the compilation of many positive playing activities over the course of years that will have the biggest impact on your child, not one instance of trying to forcibly get a certain point across to him. If your child sees that he is being forced to learn a certain thing, he will most likely rebel against the force being applied to him. However, if he sees that his feelings and desires help determine what happens in his life, he will be more anxiously engaged in shaping his own life and asking you for help as he does so. He will see you as a kind guide not a dictatorial commander.

Educational Toys

In the quest of building your child's intellect, you will not need to purchase a wide array of toys to meet the needs of your child. While there are many excellent educational toys on the market, there are also many items already in your home that can be successfully used as teaching aids. Through the creative use of items commonly found in and around your home, you and your children will find many opportunities to play and learn together. Any of the following items (or dozens you and your child will think of on your own) can be used as “toys” depending on your child’s age and developmental stage: plastic cups, wooden or metal spoons, pans, shoes, brushes, uncooked pasta, washcloths, soap and water, calculators, rocks, boxes, newspaper, squirt bottles, magnets, dirt, trees, paper plates, mops, blankets, lids, sponges, and blocks of wood. The possibilities for play and learning are endless! Be sure that any items you use are age-appropriate and safe for your child to handle, whack, twist, or otherwise manipulate to the utmost limit. For very young children, avoid anything with small parts, parts that could break off or anything that could entangle a child.


If you are considering purchasing some play items to supplement the host of items already available in your home, here are a few simple suggestions that have proven to be worth the money for the long haul: a sandbox, a swing set, a white board and set of colored dry erase markers, Play-Doh, and washable paints with lots of paper. Most children are drawn to these items and return to them again and again through the course of years.

What do you think?  What educational toys do you use? Please let me know if you are following this blog by commenting. 

The Home: A Learning Laboratory Full of Opportunities for our Kids Part 3

If it is your desire to create a learning laboratory at home that is full of opportunity, than this means you should begin establishing a ready source of teaching aids (in other words, play things) for our child to use. These items should be stored where they are easy to get to. If your child shows interest in a certain activity, but you have to search for and assemble what is needed for the activity, it is often too late. Teaching moments are short-lived occasions that require an almost instantaneous response. Be prepared with your “bag of tricks” when opportunity knocks.

The contents of your bag of tricks will change along with your child. For example, when your child is a baby scooting around the floor his main playthings may include soft toys he can squish, sturdy bowls he can pound on or put things in, and board books you can look at and talk about together. However, as your child grows into a running, jumping three-year-old your bag of tricks may expand to include such things as a measuring tape, spools, geometric shapes, plastic pitchers, measuring spoons and a flashlight. A wide variety of music and books should be a staple in any home consciously prepared to provide maximum intellectual stimulation for the children who live there.

As a reader of this blog, I would like to help you construct opportunities for you and your child to play together.  As a part of this, please do not forget that activities you consider to be “work” can be a consistent and extremely useful means of play and learning for your child. Setting the table, putting clothes into the washer, and putting away spoons and forks in the drawer are all forms of play and are loaded with opportunities and means for teaching your child.
What do you think?  Please let me know your thoughts as your are reading this.

The Home: A Learning Laboratory Full of Opportunities for our Kids Part 2

As parents, when we think of building our child's intellect, shouldn't we try to focus on providing hands-on experiences for our children as they learn? Shouldn't we try to provide ample opportunities to touch, explore and create. Kids need to feel, see, hear, and manipulate objects that will support and reinforce learning. Sometimes I think our homes and attitudes about our homes are not child friendly when it comes to learning.  Does anyone reading this agree? As parents, I think to be successful in building a child’s intellectual power, our homes should provide continuous exposure to a wide variety of experiences, no matter how messy, at times, that it makes our home.  These experiences should stimulate the child’s mind and expand the limits of her understanding and ability. 

What are some ways that your homes provide ample opportunities to touch, explore, and create?  Please share what works for you and ideas that seem to make learning enjoyable and stimulating for your kids.