Explain BF Skinners theory of Behaviourism

Skinner believed that children learn language in the same way that they learn their other behaviour and stated that this was through a system of positive and negative reinforcement. When a child imitates the language and behaviour of its parents correctly it receives positive reinforcement in the form of praise. However, if it incorrectly imitates the language or behaviour of its parents it receives negative reinforcement in the form of correction.Skinner based this theory upon research he had conducted when performing experiments on both rats and pigeons. Here he discovered they could perform tasks when broken into stages and after they received rewards for responding to the task as he wished. He demonstrated this by placing a hungry rat in a box. The box contained a lever and if the rat knocked it a food pellet would drop into a container. The rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a few times of being put in the box. He referred to children learning language as the same as these rats learning to complete tasks.The fact that children often develop the same pronunciations as their parents supports Skinners theory, as well as social and pragmatic language aspects such as politeness strategies e.g. whether a child says please & thank you.However, objections to Skinner’s theory suggest that it doesn’t account for children making virtuous errors. It also doesn’t take into account that suggests that children do not always respond to the correction of their speech. Finally, Skinner doesn’t take into account the fact that children learn language at a similar rate, regardless of their gender, race etc despite the fact that they are exposed to different environmental factors.