Much learning is associative learning, where we learn to associate one thing with another thing/experience/person, as in the newborn who learns to associate sucking with receiving comfort as well as milk, our very first achievement.  Much learning is also associated with a reward or pleasant outcome, and much learning is even associated with an unpleasant outcome.  Psychologist Edward Thorndike discussed his Power Law of Learning: one is more likely to repeat a behavior when there is a pleasant outcome or reward associated with that behavior, and one is less likely to repeat a behavior when there is an unpleasant or adverse outcome associated with one’s behavior.  Consider the preschooler who has his/her first experience drinking with a defective straw.   Typically the child takes two or 3 sucks from the straw, immediately realizes there is something wrong, walks over to Mama or Papa and presents the cup with the defective straw, and states, “It’s broken.”  As a result of earlier practice in drinking from a straw, this child had already learned that his straw-sucking technique was correct, so now there must be something wrong with this particular straw.  Perhaps the straw is indeed broken or, unbeknownst to the child, the milkshake or smoothie may be too thick to be transferred at that moment, and the parents can share their wisdom with their little one about how to resolve this difficulty.  

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