Tips on Delivering Reinforcement

When giving reinforcement, a therapist must be quick, energetic, and ready to pull any special toys or social praise for independent successes. As well, there are rules to how a therapist must deliver reinforcement.

always pair a social praise with food or a toy. This is a method to teach the child to enjoy social praise and to fade food and toy reinforcers as the child ages.
It is a good idea to bring a bag of reinforcers from your home when you do a session. This avoids satiation from “normal” reinforcers that are present on a daily basis and sparks interest in the child. Reinforcers should be changed every time a Therapist does a session so that the child keeps guessing at what a Therapist has in their bag.

Presenting and delivering reinforcement is KEY.

presenting: Therapist can buy or use little party bags, fuzzy change bags, boxes, or canisters to carry reinforcers. Therapist can also wrap reinforcers individually for added fun.
delivering: When delivering reinforcement, Therapist should be:
in eyes view of the child (i.e. the child should not be looking up to you, but should be eye-to-eye)
genuinely happy
not be too loud or monotone (make sure your reinforcement sounds different from other forms of a consequence such as a “No”)
do not forget to reinforce good sitting, hands quiet, and compliance.
use age appropriate reinforcement (i.e. tickling an 11 year old is inappropriate as using a lot of language for a child who cannot yet discriminate receptive language)
learn to read the child. If the child is not enjoying the Therapist’s reinforcement, change it or do a program. As well, if the child is full of energy, using soft, soothing types of reinforcements will help the child to calm down)