The purpose of the current article is to highlight the importance of operant techniques in developmental research. Although many researchers employ operant techniques within their individual fields of study, the pervasive nature of these techniques is not often acknowledged in the general literature. The present article describes the history of the use of operant techniques in developmental contexts and summarizes current basic research using this approach across a variety of disciplines. In addition, the recent use of operant techniques to explore cognitive development and the unique advantages it brings to this field over more traditional approaches are highlighted. Finally, the application of these techniques to clinical contexts is presented to demonstrate the usefulness of operant procedures with clinical populations.