How We Do Intermittent Behavior Reinforcement

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How We Do Intermittent Behavior Reinforcement | Encouraging Positive Behavior

With kids in general, but especially kids on the Autism spectrum, encouraging positive behavior is the best way to keep it going. There are lots of ways to do this and we do several of them but even before Jackie was evaluated by the county, we have been using intermittent behavior reinforcement. I didn't actually know that's what it was called at the time but my cousin who has worked with kids on the spectrum told me that's what it was when I explained what I was doing. So let's talk about what intermittent behavior reinforcement is.

Intermittent Behavior Reinforcement is when a positive behavior is rewarded but at random intervals. There are studies that show that the positive behavior is more likely to continue with intermittent reinforcement rather than continuous reinforcement, which is receiving a reward every time. I am not a doctor or psychologist and what works for us isn't going to work for everyone, but I wanted to share what we are doing and what is working in case it can help someone else.

How We Do Intermittent Behavior Reinforcement | What Works For Us

We do find that continuous behavior enforcement for positive behavior does work with Jackie when we use words of affirmation for little things. For example, Jackie used to yell when she wanted a different song played in the car. Last week, she and I worked on saying "Next please" instead of screaming. When I said "Thank You" or "Good Job" after she said "Next please", she was more likely to continue to say "Next please" instead of screaming. And now, any time we are in the car she will say "Next please" when she wants a song changed. I don't have to remind her to say it at all. I still say "Thank You" or "Good job".

This is something where Jackie can see a direct result of her positive behavior. She says what I want her to say, she gets what she wants, and I praise her. There are other kinds of situations where this doesn't work as well for Jackie.

I had her in swim classes last year in order to teach her water safety. Jackie loves water but isn't afraid of it at all. But swim class was hard for her. She doesn't like other people's rules or following unfamiliar routines. The first few classes were HARD. But after about a month, I started paying better attention to what Jackie was struggling with and would use continuous reinforcement during class. After a particularly good class, Jackie got a new toy. The following class was even better. After 5 good classes, Jackie got another toy. And she continued to do really well! When I realized this was working, I decided to apply it in lots of other scenarios.

How We Do Intermittent Behavior Reinforcement | When We Reward

The key to intermittent behavior reinforcement is rewarding randomly, or at least to Jackie. The Husband and I have come up with goals we want her to meet at home. Some of them are behavioral, some of them are educational. For example, she was rewarded when she could count from 1 to 20 by herself. She didn't know she was getting a reward for that, but we did. She didn't get one for counting from 1 to 10, so there wasn't an expectation for a reward. Counting to 10 took only a few days while counting to 20 took a few weeks. So Jackie worked hard and earned that reward. And now she can count backwards from 20, recognize 1-20 out in the world and even count on her hands. But again, she hasn't received a reward for any of those milestones. Our next goal is counting to 30 to get another reward.

There have also been times that we decided to reward even when there wasn't a goal. If Jackie did something really well without any kind of encouragement or instruction, we will reward that behavior. It's not always a predetermined thing when we provide a reward. And that has worked really well. Jackie got a reward after she met all of her IEP goals. We hadn't planned on doing that because we hadn't had a chance to talk about it yet!

How We Do Intermittent Behavior Reinforcement | What We Use

Right now, we are using toys for Jackie's rewards. The toys very in size and in price. When I find something I want to buy for Jackie that isn't going to be for her birthday or a holiday, I put it in what we call the "surprise bag". It stays there until it is time for another reward. The Husband and I can decide what she has earned depending on the behavior or the goal met.

I do often use sets of toys that Jackie can earn parts of over time if we are working on a bigger goal. I have linked some examples below but they have included an Elena of Avalor figure set and the Winnie the Pooh stuffed toy set. These are each earned individually over time and Jackie recognizes that they are a set and works to get them all.

When Jackie met her IEP goals, she did get a much bigger toy. This was a HUGE goal met and a lot of positive behavior has been learned and we wanted to reinforce it. It worked.

How We Do Intermittent Behavior Reinforcement | Moving Forward

Another way of deciding when to reward is using a jar and filling up the jar when the positive behavior is shown. A prize is then earned with the jar is full. I know this works with older kids and it is something we will start within the next year when Jackie can understand the concept better.

I would like to start substituting toys for experiences in the future. At the moment, I don't feel like an experience has as much of a connection to the positive behavior for Jackie. And then social distancing happened so adding experiences will be something we build up to.

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