What is Positive vs. Negative Punishment in ABA Therapy?

Telling people that I work with children on the spectrum often triggers their need to share opinions on how kids should be raised. Many people think that gentle parenting is the cause of everything wrong in the world and that discipline is the golden standard for raising children. The “back in my day” lectures that I try not to feed into make it much more complicated for people to understand how punishment works in the world of ABA. 

For parents who take a more discipline-oriented approach, punishment is a necessary tool for correction. For those who take a gentle child-centered approach, punishment is a harsh and traumatic act. In ABA therapy, punishment looks quite a bit different.

This article aims to provide some clarity on what punishment means in relation to ABA. We will go through what positive and negative punishment actually mean, how they differ from reinforcement, and how limited their use is (in relation to ABA sessions). We will go over some ethical concerns about the use of punishment in ABA and the value of prioritizing reinforcement. The overall goal is to help parents better understand ABA as a practice and equip them with foundational knowledge to ask better questions, discuss behavior, and advocate for their child.

Understanding Punishment in ABA: A Word That Needs Reclaiming

In everyday language, punishment usually means something unpleasant and intentional. It is often delivered by an adult to a child after the child does something the adult perceives as wrong. Punishments might include being yelled at, having an item taken away, being given a time-out, being spanked, or being hit, among others. This everyday idea of punishment is certainly not how ABA practitioners define punishment. Instead, ABA therapy defines punishment by its impact on behavior, not the actual consequence given. If a consequence reduces the future occurrence of a behavior, it qualifies as a punishment. 

That might sound a bit confusing, especially since the idea of a consequence is different in everyday language. Often, consequences are synonymous with punishment because they are both harsh, aversive, and intentional. In ABA, a consequence is whatever change occurs after a behavior. If I burn my hand after touching a hot stove, that is a consequence. If I win the lottery after buying some scratch-off tickets, that is a consequence. 

The behavioral definitions of punishment and consequence do not automatically imply harm, intensity, or discipline. Punishment simply describes the relationship between a behavior and its outcome (i.e., the consequence). Punishment can also be positive or negative. These descriptors do not imply good or bad; they simply indicate whether something was added (positive) or removed (negative).

Positive Punishment: Adding Something to Decrease Behavior

Positive punishment, in basic terms, is introducing something after a behavior occurs that decreases the behavior. This can look like a verbal reprimand after unsafe behavior, an overcorrection procedure after a mess is made, or response-blocking when a child starts to engage in self-injury. If the consequence leads to the behaviors occurring less in the future, the consequence was a punishment. Positive punishment works by creating an association between the behavior and the outcome. If I do this thing, this aversive thing will happen. 

Using aversive methods to change behavior can be incredibly stressful and anxiety-inducing, so it must only be used with extreme caution, if at all. Reinforcement procedures are highly preferred and should be used before considering punishment procedures. I have been in the field of ABA for many years now and can say that I have not once, in the entirety of my career, created or implemented an intervention that included a punishment procedure. Reinforcement procedures have been successful.

Negative Punishment: Taking Something Away to Decrease Behavior

Negative punishment occurs when something is removed following a behavior, leading to a decrease in that behavior. I find that this type of punishment is a lot more commonly used by parents and teachers. Examples include time-outs, taking away preferred items, or loss of access to a fun activity. Just the other day, I watched a teacher punish a child who was distracting other children by telling him he was no longer allowed to go to recess that day. My mom was also a fan of this type of punishment, grounding me whenever I did something that she didn’t approve of (this wasn’t even punishment, but more on that later). 

Negative punishment can be effective in certain situations, but should only be considered if all other behavior plans fail. Focus should remain on reinforcement strategies in combination with teaching replacement behaviors. This is not to say that negative punishment is unheard of, but it should still be a last resort. Negative punishment procedures written into behavior plans should be very, very carefully crafted to ensure they do not feel isolating or shaming to the learner. I have also yet to use negative punishment in my own work, and reinforcement procedures have been successful, even for the most severe cases. 

Is Punishment Ever Ethical in ABA Therapy?

Ethics are the most important factor when discussing punishment in ABA. Punishment procedures should be considered only after multiple reinforcement strategies have been tried and found ineffective. If, for some reason, the reinforcement strategies are unsuccessful and the behavioral team determines that punishment may be used, the least intrusive and least restrictive options must always be selected.

Modern ABA emphasizes trauma-informed care, compassion, and neurodiversity. Past ABA practices put a lot of focus on making autistic individuals as neurotypical as possible, and often let this neurotypical-focused lens lead them to put science before the individual. Many autistic self-advocates have been very outspoken about how harmful their experience with ABA was, and how punishment-heavy approaches have led to trauma later in life. These voices have shaped how the field has evolved and how we approach punishment. 

Punishment might also be considered a last resort in situations involving significant safety risks, especially when reinforcement alone is insufficient to keep the individual safe. Even still, reinforcement procedures should always be included with intervention plans. In cases with punishment procedures, it is important to have continuous data review, ongoing consent, and plans to fade the punishments as quickly as possible.

Real-Life Examples With Full Context

Here are some examples of punishment that might be implemented during ABA sessions. Again, these should be done only as a last resort and should always, always, always be used in tandem with reinforcement procedures. 

• A team may implement a response cost strategy when working with a student who engages in aggression. Response cost is the fancy behavioral term for the removal of something desired (like an activity, item, or token). Whenever the student engages in aggression, the behavioral team might take away their favorite toy for a period of time. This is negative punishment in action. 
• For a client who refuses to follow through with instructions, such as cleaning up after making a mess, overcorrection might be implemented. Overcorrection, in short, is a method of correcting someone in a way that goes beyond what is typically required. Perhaps the client is expected to pick up 6 of their own toys. With overcorrection, they would have to clean up 10 toys instead. Overcorrection is positive punishment. 

The Problem With Punishment Overuse

Overreliance on punishment can lead to several risks. With punishment, behaviors may be suppressed rather than replaced. This can be especially concerning when we understand behavior as a form of communication. If a client engages in aggression when they are hungry and their intervention is punishment, the procedure might just teach them to sit with discomfort and have no way to communicate their needs. They may also learn to distrust others and become much more reserved. 

Punishment overuse also almost always indicates that the procedure is not working and is not actually a punishment procedure. Take, for example, what I had mentioned earlier about my mom “grounding” me. I enjoyed spending time in my room. I was pretty introverted growing up, and I had a lot of different instruments in my room that kept me entertained. She would “ground” me when I did something she didn’t like, but I didn’t mind spending time in my room away from others. So, this wasn’t punishment for me. 

Here’s a much more upsetting example of this: Children who want attention from their parents can sometimes be, for lack of a better term, annoying. They might get louder, start running around, or do other things to get their parents’ attention. In response, a parent might start to yell at them to scold them as a form of punishment. The child might be quiet for a bit, but then become loud again as soon as the parent starts focusing on something else. The child talks, the parent yells. This might continue and become more intense, with the parent getting louder and the child starting to cry or have a tantrum. In this scenario, the parents’ scolding isn’t a true punishment, especially since it reinforces the behaviors the child engages in for attention. This overuse of punishment almost always leads to the “punishment” becoming more intense over time. 

Historically, ABA relied much more heavily on punishment procedures than it does today. Reinforcement procedures are the golden standard, and punishment procedures are increasingly rare. Dignity and consent are the most important components of modern ABA. Reinforcement procedures are both more humane and more effective. 

Why Reinforcement Should Always Come First

Positive reinforcement is the golden standard for modern, ethical ABA. It is used to build skills, increase motivation, strengthen relationships, maintain a positive, trusting environment, allow for errors without fear, and create the best possible learning environment. When children’s learning focuses on what to do rather than what not to do, behavior change is better and longer-lasting.

FAQs

Q: Is time-out considered negative punishment? 

A: It depends. Consider my experience with being grounded. It was not punishment for me since I enjoyed spending time in my room. If the child enjoys an activity and is removed from it, and that removal leads to the child engaging in aggression less often than before, then the time-out is considered as negative punishment.

Q: Is saying “no” a form of punishment? 

A: Again, it depends. If saying “no” decreases the likelihood of a behavior, it is punishing. I think of my dad growing up as a good example of this. If he were to catch us kids doing something and say “no” sternly, I would definitely stop what we were doing. Oftentimes, however, “no” is more of a boundary and less of a punishment. 

Q: Can punishment ever be a positive experience for the child? 

A: Punishment is definitely not something that is meant to feel positive; however, it should never feel scary or harmful. Some parents would probably consider punishment as a positive thing, but children, both autistic and neurotypical, do not enjoy being punished. I believe that learning to do the right thing is a much better experience when there is no fear of punishment for choosing the wrong thing.

Q: What’s the difference between extinction and punishment? 

A: Extinction means that a behavior is no longer reinforced, while punishment is specifically adding or removing something to decrease a behavior. For example, if I were to put a quarter into a vending machine to buy a snack and the machine did not dispense my snack, I might get frustrated and add another quarter. If I continue adding quarters without a snack falling, I will stop adding quarters to the machine. I was not reinforced for my behavior. That is extinction. If I were to add a quarter to the vending machine and a loud, blaring alarm started going off, I would probably stop putting quarters in to avoid the loud, annoying noise. That is punishment. 

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