Creative Token Economy Systems

Often as our students get older the activities they are motivated by are not so easy as running to the backyard to jump on the trampoline or playing a video game. We need to be a bit more creative if we are going to have them earn a trip to the beach or Jamba Juice.

For one of our Kindergarten students (who loves snakes by the way!), his team developed an elaborate token system.


He earned pennies for completing and participating in certain activities appropriately. He could trade his pennies in for different activities, but the more exciting activities (e.g., a trip to Jamba Juice) cost more. There were also certain inappropriate behaviors that would "cost" him pennies (e.g., hitting a sibling would involve losing a certain number of pennies).

Less motivating activities required fewer pennies.

In addition to expanding his repertoire of reinforcers, this type of token economy also reinforces his ability to delay immediate reinforcement. Students gradually learn that in some situations it is worth it to pass up one activity for a more desirable activity.

There are lots of ways to be creative when setting up a token economy system. This is just one!

Phone Video Reinforcers

Most current cell phones allow you to record short videos, which make great quick reinforcers. Record yourself singing a song, falling down, playing a musical instrument, etc. Also, try clips of parents and old tutors doing any of the above. Some children are fascinated by video tours of tutors' homes, or meeting tutors' pets and family members. You'd be surprised how much kids enjoy a 40-second documentary on your trip to the grocery store last night (and you can also work in community location info).

Some children will like seeing the same clips over and over, while for others, the big appeal is getting to see new videos each time a tutor visits.

The video quality will not be great, but you can also record YouTube videos right off the computer screen.

Reinforce individual responses with short clips (3-5 seconds). Save longer clips as back-up reinforcers for whole sittings or programs that involve time-consuming responses (e.g., independent academic tasks like worksheets and art projects, advanced trips).

Do you YouTube?

Looking for new stimuli to teach Superheroes? Want to teach Star Wars but you don't have the movies? Does your child love sea creatures?

Then YouTube may be the perfect place for you to find new reinforcers and stimuli. Tutors are using YouTube as a reinforcer by letting the children they are working with pick what they want to look up (e.g., Lego Star Wars, Sponge Bob, pufferfish, tornados). They are also using it for stimuli to introduce new concepts.

Hmmm...have we thought about using this for action videos? What a great way to generalize when children are first learning to expressively label actions!