The way you deliver the primary reinforcer can make a difference in how smoothly your teaching session runs. You can use the delivery of the primary reinforcer to help get the behavior you want. For example if you are tagging a child for approaching and being around a play table, you could tag and place the treat on the table. This gives you another opportunity to tag while the child is still in the vicinity of the table. If you are teaching a child to reach for objects, you could hold the treat in different positions as you hand it to her, so as to increase the range of motions she will do with her arms. Be careful to make this very subtle, so that you are not causing frustration about getting the treat. Once you tag you must give the treat with no strings attached, but having the child reach slightly for the treat can be beneficial.

Food reinforcers, praise or pulling a tagulator bead are the quickest and easiest ways to give a primary reinforcer after the tag. If you have a child who can delay the primary reinforcer by pulling multiple beads, then your sessions will be even more efficient.

Using other reinforcers such as toys, play time, time with electronics or other non-food reinforcers leads to a situation in which you must get the toy back or end the session with the music. TAGteach can help with this, since you can teach the child to trade or give things back on cue. You can have a series of more and more desirable reinforcers to use in sequence to entice the child to leave the one she currently is playing with. You can teach a child to touch a target as a very strong response and use that to distract them from the toy and return to the teaching session. Timers can also be very effective to shut down the music or electronics after a set period. As soon as the music ends you can give a cue to touch or do some other well-rehearsed behavior, tag and get back to your session.

Teach this first !!!  Train the ending of the video. Use a time. Tell the child you will watch video for 30 seconds, when the timer dings, turn off, tag and treat. Turn video back on for 30 seconds (or whatever time you choose), when the time dings, turn off video, tag and treat.

There are lots of technology apps nowadays that play videos and music for short times and then come to an end.

If the child cannot endure the removal of the reinforcer, then put that item away and work with other things until the child learns that reinforcers will always come back.