Here’s a homework assignment to get started with figuring out your child’s reinforcers.

• Look at 2 desired behaviors that your child performs, and write down what happens after each of those.
• Look at 2 behaviors you would like to change, and note what happens after those.
• What did you observe?  What reinforcers, or consequences, did you observe after these behaviors?

The reinforcers following the desired behaviors are things your child likes. The reinforcers following the undesired behaviors are also things your child likes, because he keeps doing that behavior! So you will have four reinforcers on your list just from this exercise!

Time to make some changes…

Based on your one or two-day observation, list all of your child’s desired reinforcers and organize them according to category.

We have a simple chart here on the screen, you can click here to download a chart to use for this homework. There are four categories of reinforcers:

• Primary (foods, treats)
• Social (verbal interaction, verbal praise, hugs, high-fives, tickles)
• General (money, toys, tokens, points)
• Activity (park, playground, movies, TV, computer, parties)