What behavioral technique involves ignoring a child's temper tantrum to reduce its occurrence?

The behavioral technique that involves ignoring a child's temper tantrum to reduce its occurrence is known as extinction. In the context of behavior modification, extinction refers to the process of discontinuing reinforcement for a previously reinforced behavior. When a child throws a tantrum and is often rewarded with attention or other forms of reinforcement, they learn to associate the tantrum with getting a response. By ignoring the tantrum, caregivers remove this reinforcement, which can lead to a decrease in the frequency of the behavior over time.

When tantrums occur frequently and are followed by attention, whether positive or negative, the child learns that this behavior is an effective method for gaining the desired response. By applying extinction, caregivers aim to break this cycle by not providing any attention during the tantrum, thereby allowing the behavior to diminish as the child learns that it no longer leads to the desired outcome.

This technique is often used in conjunction with other strategies to encourage positive behavior changes in children, such as positive reinforcement for appropriate behavior when the child is calm or expressing themselves in a more desirable way.