Georgia PBS Interventions - Florida's Positive Behavior Support ...

If the function of the behavior is to escape work:here are some ways to accomplish work so the adult controls the breaks.NOW/THEN scheduleThe student does a required task with thepromotion of a desired task to be gained once therequired task is done. This can be paired with atoken economy if the student is resistant toquitting once the break time is over.Many times we hear that this is bribery. This is notbribery for one good reason and that is thedefinition of bribery is to get someone to dosomething illegal or immoral. Since doing a worktask at school is neither of those; then offering areinforcing activity is not an offense.This is teaching children how to make good use of time. Good college students study before theyparty, do homework before they play, or do the hardest task first. This is teaching good work habits.Token Economy earning small prizes for completing work that can be traded in for larger prizes.Tokens are used to help the child switch from the preferred activity back to a work activity. Theyearn a token if they immediately put their things away when the timer goes off. They are one tokencloser to earning a break.Timer- Set the timer for 15 minutes for work and then 10 minutes for break using apreferred reinforcer for the break activity.Use what they love. For example: Teenagers love listening to music. They sneaktheir CD players, IPODS to school all the time. Let them bring CD players etc. fromhome. Put them on a token economy to earn the right to listen to music while they doseat work, or give them a 5 minute break. So many schools take away these itemsand don’t use it to their advantage. You can use these things as preferredreinforcers instead of making it a “Because I said so” war.Positive Interventions and Effective Strategies Riffel -© 2005 - 52 -