Picture this. You have a student who is using a token board perfectly. He earns his five tokens and preferred reward. You think all is well and good until it is time to give his reward back. Cue the refusal, crying, and — sometimes — total meltdown. What do you do?
I took this question to Instagram and got several great ideas. Keep in mind, each student and each situation is different. This is an array of ideas you can read through to see if one helps with your student.
Use a visual timer
I love using timers in my classroom, but some of my students don’t understand traditional timers that just count down numbers. They just wait to hear the bell ring, and sometimes when it does, they are not ready to give up their reinforcement.
I love this visual timer from Learning Resources. I can have it blink yellow as a warning for my student. That gives him a minute to get ready for the end of reinforcement. The red light and the sound cue him that time is over!
Use an Edible Reinforcer
I know edible reinforcers are a bit of a hot topic but if you and the family agree and it works for the kid, go for it! The idea is when the student gives up his reinforcer, he gets an edible. You can break the edible down into pieces to make it last longer and decrease the amount of edibles they get, if needed.
This worked wonders for my student! We had him go from complete meltdowns to quickly handing over the reinforcer with no issues. We are even starting to back off on the edibles and that is going well, too!
Get the first token on your token board for putting away the reinforcer
This works great if you are using a token board. The idea is when the student gives back the reinforcement, they get the first token on their board for the next round. For this to work, your student really needs to understand the point of the token board. If your student does not have a lot of meaning to the tokens and is never sure when the reward is coming, this might not work. If your student is beginning to earn his last token to get the reward, this might be a good choice! We love using the colorful token board that comes in Especially Education task box sets.
Earn extra time on the next reinforcement break
This is a higher level concept that. The idea is if the student gives back the reinforcer this time, he gets extra time the next time he earns it. This has the potential to work great, but not only does he need to know how to use a token board, he needs to have a concept of time and understand what “wait” means.
I hope one of these four ideas works! What other ideas do you have? Leave them in the comments!