Well, its hard to give positive reinforcement right at the instant where bad behavior is happening. I think what he meant was something like * You were behavin

Well, its hard to give positive reinforcement right at the instant where bad behavior is happening. I think what he meant was something like * You were behaving really well ("like a grown up", which some kids love) when you were using your knife to cut the food only before I see how this might take some practice to do on a regular basis. I think it should be easier if the positive/negative feedback is verbal only (that's good/that's bad and not much more), which relates to your point about no-cost reinforcement