The Reinforcement Matrix (RMX): A behaviour management and change strategy for children, young people and adults caring for them
Keywords:
young people, The Reinforcement Matrix, behaviour management and change strategy, behaviour management,Abstract
Few would argue that living with, raising or working with children and young people is both a hugely rewarding, and at times challenging, experience requiring all the resources of energy, clarity and self control that we – the adults – can muster. As a parent to teenage sons I am constantly amazed at my capacity to, at times, not follow through on the good advice that I readily dish out to others.
As you read this, you may be a parent wanting to be more consistent in your parenting – or wishing your partner could be more collaborative and consistent with you in their parenting. Or, you may be a caregiver, counsellor, educator, social worker or youth and community worker looking for an effective framework to work to, or wanting to be able to offer something more to parents who are struggling. If the hat fits for either of these propositions, then read on. Chances are, you will find what follows very helpful.
The Reinforcement Matrix or ‘RMX’ is a behaviour management and change strategy designed to effect positive change for children and teenagers and for the parents/caregivers and professionals living and working with them. It is built around the notions of ‘keep it simple, strengths-based, memorable and practical’. Let me say categorically at the outset that this is not an instrument designed to give adults more ‘power and control’ over children and young people, to be applied like some sort of robotic formula. Rather it is a proactive approach to working with them, designed to promote more positive relationships, enhanced understanding, greater self control, and increased responsibility for all parties involved.
The idea was first developed as an initiative at the Lower North Youth Justice Residential Centre in Palmerston North, a Statutory Residence run by the New Zealand Department of Child, Youth and Family Services. The Reinforcement Matrix was adopted as a behaviour management strategy in the residence and a particular form of this model with an implementation strategy was incorporated into their procedures manual.
Having developed the model for this context, I then began a process of thinking how it could have applications into other contexts. I began to incorporate the Matrix into my supervision work with professionals working with children and young people, into my training work with youth orientated professionals (particularly in Singapore where I have had the opportunity to run social work training for the last 13 years), and also introduce it into work I was doing with parents in my private counselling practice.
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Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behaviour of organisms: An experimental analysis. New York: Appleton-Century.
Saleebey, D. (Ed.). (1997). The strengths perspective in social work practice: Extensions and causations. New York: Longman.
Turnell, A. & Edwards, S. (1999). The signs of safety. New York: Norton.
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