Behavior Week Surprise Addition: The Dos and Don’ts of a Token Economy by Sasha | Sep 15, 2012 | Behavior, Interventions, Resources | 0 comments
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Behavior Week Surprise Addition: The Dos and Don’ts of a Token Economyby Sasha | Sep 15, 2012 | Behavior, Interventions, Resources | 0 comments
Token economies are popular classroom management tools. It’s an effective intervention that is
relatively easy to set up and implement – if done correctly. A token economy can be extremely
successful at increasing appropriate behaviors, task completion, and academic skills. Wooho, right?!
And if you are successful at increasing all these fabulous responses it will in turn decrease the bad
behaviors that are ruining your life (okay… dramatic). You can’t be working quietly on your
worksheet and be talking to your friend at the same time can you?
So, what is a token economy? A token economy is a system for delivering positive reinforcement
to children for engaging in desired behaviors or completing tasks. Target behaviors are set and
tokens are delivered by the teacher when children display the target behaviors. The tokens are
exchanged for back-up reinforcers at a designated time.
So yes – token economies can be an amazing ball of wonderfulness…. if done correctly. If done
incorrectly, get ready for no student buy-in, no participation, and an all around unsuccessful
intervention and huge waste of your time (not to scare you but be afraid). Check out these Dos and
Don’ts to make sure your token economy rocks!
The Dos:
Do pick target behaviors that are incompatible with negative behaviors. The first thing you need to
do when setting up a token economy is pick target behaviors. Target behaviors can be behavioral
(sitting in seat, walking in hallway, etc.) or related to academics (completes 3 centers, finishes
worksheets, doing quiet reading, etc.). Pick behaviors that your students cannot do while doing
negative behaviors (especially ones that commonly occur in your room!). You can’t do quiet reading
while talking to your friends. You can’t walk and run in the hallway at the same time.
Do include a variety of reinforcers. The beauty of the token economy is that is works for a group of a
variety of types of children. So you need to include rewards that are motivating to a variety of
students. A token economy will not work if the prizes are all similar. You need a wide range of types
of reinforcers for both boys and girls, different interests, and higher quality reinforcers.
Do set up a schedule for delivering reinforcement. Decide if you will be using a time schedule or
response schedule. In a time schedule, you could use a time interval (ie. every 5 mins, 10 mins etc.)
and whichever students are doing the target behaviors earn tokens. Response schedules would be
based on when students are doing the target response. Will you be giving tokens for every target
response? Roughly every other response? Every 5 responses?
Do be consistent with all students and in all subjects/classrooms. You want this system to be
consistent. Your students will pick up if you are not using this intervention in certain areas or with
certain students and you will lose buy in.
Do be excited and enthusiastic. If you think the system is stupid and aren’t into it, so will your
students. Your token economy is the most amazing, exciting, and cool thing you have ever heard of.
That excitement will wear off!
Do include visuals and plan for differentiation. Students with special needs are included in many
classrooms. Make sure this system is accessible for them. Make visuals for students with lower
receptive language so they understand what is expected of them and how the system works. Here is
one I use:
Do make sure your ‘costs’ for reinforcers that can be achieved. So how much will your reinforcers
‘cost’? In order to set these costs – you need to look at how often the target behaviors are currently
occurring. So take a quick baseline. If your target behaviors are – sitting in your desk, doing your
work, and raising your hand without shouting out, look at how often these are happening (or aren’t
happening) before you implement your token economy.
Do pair tokens with praise. This will help when you need to fade this system. For some students –
praise is not reinforcing so you need to train praise as a reinforcer!
Do take data. Keep it simple but make sure to take some kind of data so your know if you token is
(or isn’t) working.
Do have a plan for fading. This is the hardest and most easily forgotten aspect of a token economy.
This system will eventually not work if you keep it the same! Additionally since this is a contrived
system of reinforcement, you want to fade this to a naturally occurring system of reinforcement.
Fading can be tricky and you need to have a plan in place for this before you. Think about getting
new reinforcers that are more ‘expensive’ (need more tokens to buy). Or maybe you will lengthen the
time between when you buy your rewards. Start at once a day then twice a week then once a
week. Gradually start giving less tokens – every 8 responses then every 10 etc.
Do pick tokens that are age appropriate. I hate seeing smiley face stickers in junior high
classrooms!
The Don’ts:
Don’t let you students go “bankrupt” with no opportunity to earn more reinforcers. Some token
economies have a ‘response cost.’ That means you can lose points for using certain ‘bad’ behaviors.
This can be helpful for some students that need extra motivation to avoid losing points or tokens.
However, I have seen a LOT of token economies that use this system with no way for students to
earn more tokens. If a student has lost all their points with no way to earn more – than they have
nothing to lose. They can be as crazy or as horrible as they want and who cares – they can’t earn a
reinforcer anyways.
Don’t forget to follow through with reinforcers. This is the easiest way to lose student buy in.
Don’t pick too lofty of goals or too many behaviors. I have seen token economies that are set up so
perfectly to address every goal and issue in the classroom …. but are so complicated that the
teacher can in no way implement it. Don’t forget you are still going to be teaching while implementing
this system. It needs to be something easy, easy, easy! If you can’t remember off the top of your
head which behaviors you are targeting – neither will your students!
Don’t make the cost of buying reinforcers unattainable. Who is going to work towards something that
is too hard to achieve? Start by making easy to reach goals and increase slowly from there.
Don’t leave the same system in all year. See the ‘Do have a plan for fading.’ This is so important I
included it twice!
Don’t make it too complicated. Getting redundant – I know. But again, this is so critically important.
Simple is better especially when you start. You can always make it more complicated later but it’s
much harder to make a complicated system easier.
Good luck in all your token economy endeavors!
I linked up with What the Teacher Wants – Management Monday Linky Party. Go check out some
other great behavior management ideas
Token Economy"One of the most important technologies of behaviour
modifiers and applied behaviour analysts over the last 40 years has been the token economy"
- Matson and Boisjoli (2009, p. 240)
What is a Token Economy?Within an educational setting, a token economy is a system for providing positive reinforcement to a child or children by giving them tokens for completing tasks or behaving in desired ways.
Token economies are used as a method of strengthening a behaviour, or increasing its frequency, because the tokens are a way of “paying” children for completing tasks and the children can then use these tokens to buy desired activities or items (Miltenberger, 2008).
Interestingly, ‘tokens, in the form of clay coins, first appeared in human history in transition from nomadic hunter-gather societies to agricultural societies, and the expansion from simple barter economies to more complex economies’ (Hackenberg, 2009, p. 257; Schmandt-Besserant, 1992).
How does a Token Economy work?The basic principle is that a child earns a certain number of tokens by engaging in desired behaviours (called “target behaviours”) and can then exchange these tokens – effectively using them as payment – to gain access to backup reinforcers.
The basic "cycle" of a token economy.
The target behaviours could be anything. For example, completing academic tasks like getting a certain amount of spellings correct, or it could be saying hello to their teacher in the morning, or playing nicely with their peers.
What a target behaviour will be depends on each individual child. Some token economies could be used to increase a child’s desire to complete academic tasks while another token economy could be used to decrease the amount of aggression a child engages in by giving tokens for not engaging in aggressive behaviours.
What is a Back-Up Reinforcer?A backup reinforcer is an activity, item or privilege that the child likes and enjoys. The token economy works because the tokens become paired with the earning of the back-
up reinforcers and the child only gets tokens for engaging in desired behaviours (Miltenberger, 2008). Therefore the target behaviours (should) occur more often.
What does a Token Economy Chart (or Mat) Look Like?There is no one single type of token economy chart. Some will have a space where an image of something being earned - a reinforcer - can be placed (as in the image below), others will have space to write down what is being earned while others will be used only to record how many tokens have been earned.
For token charts where there is no place for a reinforcer there will typically be some method of choosing from a group of possible reinforcers once the chart is filled up or there might be a list of reinforcers that all "cost" different amounts and it is up to the student to decide when they want to trade in their tokens for a specific reinforcer.
One example of a token economy chart with space to place a PECS sized reinforcer and twelve tokens.
Money is a type of TokenThe world economy where people go to work, do their job to earn money and then spend this money for things they want or need is pretty much identical to a classroom token economy. The money you earn from employment itself isn’t really what you want – it is a means to an end. What you really want is what you buy with your money because getting money means you get desired items and activities (e.g. car, house, jewellery, food).
For a classroom token economy, a child will go to school, complete academic tasks to earn tokens and then spend these tokens for back-up reinforcers. Again, the tokens aren’t really what the child wants. Just like our money, the tokens are a means to an end – getting tokens means getting things the child wants (e.g. 5 minutes playing a computer game, a break from work, chocolate, sweets).
Comparing the world economy to a classroom token economy.
What can be used as tokens?The term “token” suggests something physical that you can hold in your hand. Some token economies do use physical objects such as poker chips, printed cards with smiley faces, fake money or even marbles.
However, not all tokens are like this, some might just use a tick on a sheet of paper, a hole punched in a card or a stamp put onto a card (Foxx, 1998). These “non-physical” tokens are sometimes called “points” (Miltenberger, 2008).
In Kazdin and Bootzin’s (1972, p. 343-344) review of token economies, they cite Ayllon and Azrin (1968) regarding a number of advantages in using tangible items for tokens. These include:
‘the number of tokens can bear a simple quantitative relation to the amount of reinforcement
the tokens are portable and can be in the subject's possession even when he is in a situation far removed from that in which the tokens were earned
no maximum exists in the number of tokens a subject may possess
tokens can be used directly to operate devices for the automatic delivery of reinforcers
tokens are durable and can be continuously present during the delay
the physical characteristics of the tokens can be easily standardised
the tokens can be made fairly indestructible so they will not deteriorate during the delay
the tokens can be made unique and nonduplicable so that the experimenter can be assured that they are received only in the authorised manner.
In addition, tokens provide a visible record of improvement. This may facilitate social reinforcement from staff members, as well as self-reinforcement.’
Advantages of a Token EconomyAccording to Kazdin and Bootzin (1972, p. 343) the use of tokens as a method of delivering reinforcement through the child exchanging them for back-up reinforcers has a number of advantages. For example, they:
‘bridge the delay between the target response and back-up reinforcement
permit the reinforcement of a response at any time
may be used to maintain performance over extended periods of time when the back-up reinforcer cannot be parcelled out
allow sequences of responses to be reinforced without interruption
maintain their reinforcing properties because of their relative independence of deprivation states
are less subject to satiation effects
provide the same reinforcement for individuals who have different preferences in back-up reinforcers
may take on greater incentive value than a single primary reinforcer’
Additionally, Miltenberger (2008) highlights how:
Positive reinforcement, via the tokens, can be provided immediately after the target behaviour occurs.
A token economy is structured therefore there will be consistency with how positive reinforcement is delivered for target behaviours.
A child’s future planning skills can be developed because different amounts of tokens need to be earned for different types of backup reinforcers and the tokens must be kept until enough has been earned.
Things to Consider with a Token Economy If an economy is being implemented at a large scale, across a group of individuals and
settings, it may be time consuming and take a lot of effort to organise and train staff to correctly implement it.
Depending on the preferred backup reinforcers, it may be costly to purchase them.
It’s pertinent to check that ‘the expected benefits (improvement in behaviour) justify the time, effort and cost of conducting the programme’ (Miltenberger, 2008, p.513).
Seven Components of a Token EconomyMiltenberger (2008, p.498) lists seven components that need to be defined when implementing a token economy. These are:
'The desirable target behaviours to be strengthened.
The tokens to be used as conditioned reinforcers.
The backup reinforcers to be exchanged for tokens.
A reinforcement schedule for token delivery.
How many tokens are needed to be exchanged for the backup reinforcers.
A time and place for exchanging tokens for backup reinforcers.
In some cases, a response cost component, in which the undesirable target behaviours to be eliminated are identified, together with the rate of token loss for each instance of these behaviours.'
Miltenberger's seven components of a token economy.
One-to-One Token Economy ExampleTarbox, Ghezzi and Wilson (2006) investigated the use of token economies in an effort to increase the eye contact of a 5 year old boy called Adam who was diagnosed with autism. We’re going to go through one of the economies used in the Tarbox et al study and use Miltenberger’s (2008) seven components to describe it.
Target Behaviour: attending to his tutor before the delivery of an instruction; with “attending” defined as making eye contact with the tutor for at least 3 seconds.
Tokens to be used: laminated “star stickers” placed on a “token board”.
Backup Reinforcers: a 90 second break from academic tasks where he could play with preferred toys of his choice.
Reinforcement Schedule: Adam received 1 token every single time he engaged in the target behaviour (made eye contact for 3 seconds).
Rate of Token Exchange for Reinforcers: a total of 10 tokens were required before Adam could earn a backup reinforcer.
Time and Place to Exchange Tokens for Backup Reinforcers: this was done immediately after 10 tokens had been earned. It was completed at the classroom desk.
Response Cost: they did not use a response cost.
Response CostCooper, Heron and Heward (2007) make it clear that a response cost ‘should be saved for those major undesirable behaviours that call attention to themselves and need to be suppressed quickly. The teacher’s or parent’s primary attention should always be focused on positive behaviour to reinforce; response cost should be a last resort and should be combined with other procedures to build adaptive behaviours’ (p. 370).
A response cost is a penalty or fine where tokens are taken away from the child for breaking rules or engaging in inappropriate behaviours. Much like breaking a law such as driving over the speed limit and being fined money for it by the police.
It’s important that children are aware of the rules before any response cost would be used so it’s crystal clear what is a rule and what is a broken rule. Additionally, a response cost should never be used if a child does not already have tokens. Never put a child in “token debt” (Cooper et al. 2007).
A Token Economy is Conditioned Reinforcement
The token economy is a form of “conditioned reinforcement” or “secondary reinforcement” (Malott & Trojan-Suarez, 2006). This is because the tokens are not naturally occurring reinforcers. Naturally occurring reinforcers like food or water would be classed as “unconditioned reinforcers” or “primary reinforcers” because they do not need to be paired with anything.
The money you earn by going to work is a form of conditioned reinforcement because the money itself is not naturally reinforcing. It is the fact that you can use this money to get desired items and activities like a house, food, cars or holidays.
To expand a little more, imagine you go to work and get given some plastic tokens at the end of the day. It’s unlikely that you’re going to be in any way happy about this. However, if you were told that those tokens could be traded in for an extra day off work, all of a sudden those tokens will become something that you’re going to want to get more of (well for most people anyway).
In this case, the tokens become conditioned reinforcers because they have now been “paired” with the ability to get a day off work. In other words, getting tokens leads to getting a day off work while no tokens means no day off.
In the case of school children, the tokens serve as a way of gaining access to preferred items and activities – therefore, getting tokens leads to getting activities and no tokens means no activities.
Conditioned versus "Generalised" ConditionedIn the example about trading tokens for a day off work, if the tokens could only be traded for a day off then these tokens would be termed “conditioned reinforcers”. If the tokens could be traded for various different desired items and not just one specific thing then they would be termed “generalised conditioned reinforcers”.
The distinction here is about whether the tokens can be traded for only one item/privilege (conditioned reinforcers) or numerous items/privileges (generalised conditioned reinforcers). The money earned through employment is a form of generalised conditioned reinforcement because you can buy any number of things with it.
Tokens used within educational settings are typically “generalised conditioned reinforcers” as well, because they can be traded for a number of different items and activities. This is not always the case though. Sometimes a programme may be implemented where a specific type of token (e.g. red stars) can only be traded for specific activities/items (e.g. a special trip at the end of a school week).
Positive Reinforcement"Positive reinforcement is the most important and most
widely applied principle of behaviour analysis"
- Cooper, Heron and Heward (2007, p.257)
What is Reinforcement?Miltenberger (2008, p.73) states that ‘reinforcement is the process in which a behaviour is strengthened by the immediate consequence that reliably follows its occurrence’. To “strengthen” a behaviour is to make it occur more frequently; as clarified by Michael (2004, p. 258) stating that 'when a type of behaviour is followed by reinforcement there will be an increased future frequency of that type of behaviour'.
This basically means that if you engage in a certain behaviour, and this behaviour gets you something that you wanted, then you are more likely to engage in that same behaviour again when you want the same outcome in the future.
For example, when you want to turn on your television you will press the “ON” button. Before you pressed this button the TV was off but you wanted it on and so after pressing the button you got what you wanted. Therefore, in future, when you want the TV on you will press the ON button again and so positive reinforcement has occurred.
You won’t press the VOLUME button because when you have done this in the past it doesn’t turn on your TV, therefore pressing the VOLUME button when you want the TV to turn on will mean positive reinforcement does not occur.
Note though that making a behaviour occur more frequently is not the only “strengthening” that can occur. The duration, latency, magnitude and/or topography of behaviours can also be strengthened (Cooper et al, 2007).
What’s the “Positive” in Positive Reinforcement?The term “positive” is used in conjunction with reinforcement to denote a specific form of reinforcement. It does not mean something “good” but instead the term positive relates more to the mathematical term of “adding” or “addition”.
This is because positive reinforcement is the addition of something as a result of a behaviour after you have engaged in this behaviour. Before you engaged in the behaviour, what you wanted was not present but after you engaged in the behaviour what you wanted is present.
The "positive" in positive reinforcement is when something that was not present becomes present after
engaging in a behaviour.
Positive Reinforcement ExamplePositive Reinforcement Does Not Occur: Johnny comes running into his mother after being outside in the hot sun playing with his friends. He exclaims “I’m really thirsty! Can I have some coke please Mam?” His mother says “No Johnny, now run along back outside to your friends”. Johnny isn’t very happy with this and he decides there’s no point in asking for coke the next time he wants some because he didn’t get any this time.
In this example, although Johnny asked for coke he was not given it. Therefore even after engaging in the behaviour of requesting coke, positive reinforcement did not occur. Additionally, because he was not given coke by asking for it he has decided not to ask next time and so there will not be an increase in the future frequency of that behaviour.
Positive Reinforcement Does Occur: Johnny comes running into his mother after being outside in the hot sun playing with his friends. He exclaims “I’m really thirsty! Can I have some coke please Mam?” His mother says “Of course you can Johnny!” and promptly gets a bottle of coke from the refrigerator and pours him a glass. He gulps it down and decides that the next time he wants some coke he’ll make sure to ask again.
In this example, Johnny had no coke but wanted some, his behaviour (asking for coke) led to him getting what he wanted. Johnny’s request for coke was positively reinforced by him being given some. By being given what he wanted he is also more likely to ask this question again at a later time when he is thirsty and so there will be an increased future frequency of that behaviour.
Johnny's request for a drink of coke is positively reinforced by him being given some (coke is added).
Reinforce the Behaviour…not the PersonIn the example above where positive reinforcement did occur, it is important to note that it was Johnny’s behaviour that was reinforced and not Johnny himself. It would be incorrect to say “Johnny was positively reinforced with coke” because it was his request (behaviour) for coke that was reinforced.
Instead you would say “Johnny’s request for coke was positively reinforced”. In the words of Cooper et al (2007, p. 258) ‘behaviours are reinforced, not people.’
Educational Example of Positive ReinforcementA teacher is working through a discrimination programme where she places photographs of common fruits on the desk in front of her student, Brian, and then asks him to point to specific ones. For example, the teacher will place one photo of an apple and one photo of an orange on the desk and then says “point to apple” and Brian must point to the apple.
The teachers have found that Brian is only getting 2 out of 10 discriminations correct. As a way to try and increase his correct discriminations (his behaviour) they have decided
to use a token economy as a way of providing positive reinforcement to Brian for responding correctly.
For every correct response the teacher will give Brian a token. These tokens are like the student’s version of money where he can earn them for completing his work and then use them to buy things that he wants such as fun activities, breaks from school work or sweets. The more correct responses he makes the more tokens he earns and so there will (or should) be an increased future frequency of correct responding because more tokens means more fun activities.
Using a token economy to delivery positive reinforcement for responding correctly should increase the
amount of correct responses.
Positive Reinforcement Does Occur: on the first day using the token economy, Brian gets 6 out of 10 correct; on the second day he gets 8 out of 10 and on the third day he gets 10 out of 10. Remember, he is given tokens when he responds correctly; these tokens are “added” to the amount he has after he responds correctly and because his correct responses have increased it can be said that positive reinforcement is occurring.
The tokens act as a form of positive reinforcement because before pointing to the correct photo he wouldn’t have a token and then after pointing to the correct photo he gets one. From looking at how his correct responding increased, it could be said that Brian wanted to earn the tokens because earning them leads to him being able to trade them for a reinforcing activity and therefore he is more likely to continue to respond correctly when using this token economy.
Positive Reinforcement Does Not Occur: on the first day using the token economy, Brian gets 3 out of 10 correct; on the second day he gets 2 out of 10 and on the third day he gets 2 out of 10 again. In this case, positive reinforcement has not occurred because his responding has not increased. Even though he is being given tokens for
correct responding and that he can trade the tokens for fun activities, his correct responding has not increased and therefore positive reinforcement is not occurring.
Related Content
Negative Reinforcement
Schedules of Reinforcement
Token Economy
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References
Cooper, J., Heron, T., & Heward, W. (2007). Applied Behaviour Analysis. New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Malott, R. & Trojan-Suarez, E. (2004) Principles of Behaviour. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Miltenberger, R. (2008). Behaviour Modification. Belmont, CA. Wadsworth Publishing.
Token EconomyStudy: Walker, Hops, & Fiegenbaum (1976)
Study Type: Single-Subject Design
Descriptive Information
UsageAcquisition & Cost
Program Specifications & Requirements
Training
A token economy is a contingency
Token economy is intended for use in
The token economy is a non-
Token economy is designed for use
Training is required for the
management system that allows participants to earn tokens for presenting specific, positive behaviors which are later exchanged for predetermined backup reinforcement (Kazdin, 1977). The essential requirement is that the tokens are systematically linked to a menu of meaningful reinforcement options. As such, the primary reinforcers (i.e., tokens) acquire symbolic value akin to ordinary currency within classical monetary systems (Wolery, Bailey, & Sugai, 1988). The standard features of token economies are aligned with the critical features of other behavior modification programs (Hall, 1979). These five elements include: (a) the identification of specific target behaviors; (b) the identification of tokens for primary
Kindergarten through high school. It is intended for use with students with disabilities, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, emotional or behavioral disabilities, English language learners, and any student at risk for emotional and/or behavioral difficulties.
The area of focus is externalizing behavior, which includes: physical aggression, verbal threats, property destruction, noncompliance, high levels of disengagement, disruptive behavior, and social behavior.
commercial intervention and, therefore, does not have a formal pricing plan. Moreover, the cost of the program will ultimately depend on the materials used as tokens and reinforcers. The structure of the program requires the delivery of tokens (e.g., tickets, points marked on a sheet, poker chips) for appropriate behavior and the development of a menu of backup reinforcers (e.g., pencils, small toys, gift cards, coupons, homework pass) to deliver to students. As such, the cost of the program can be adjusted to match the available resources of the schools. It is recommended, however, that schools allot a certain portion of the budget for the intervention to ensure that backup reinforcers and tokens are readily available to increase the likelihood that the
with individual students, small groups of students, or with a classroom of students. Only one interventionist is needed to implement the program.
Program administration varies depending on program procedures (i.e., it could be in effect for 20 minutes at a time or the entire day with regular intervals for feedback). Token economies are typically in place for a period of time on a daily basis and are typically in place until responsiveness indicates school personnel should initiate a fading procedure.
The program does not include highly specified teacher manuals or instructions for implementation.
The program is not affiliated with a broad school or class wide management program.
interventionist. The non-commercial nature of the program makes training on the procedures of the token economy critical to ensure it is implemented reliably. As such, the school personnel charged with developing the token economy methods should be prepared to ensure all faculty who have a role in implementation understand (a) the behaviors being targeted, (b) the method and criteria for delivering the tokens, (c) the process for providing the student with feedback on (both positive and negative) their behavior, and (d) the procedures and "cost" of various backup reinforcers. This training can likely be done in an initial introductory training session with follow-up troubleshooting on specific implementation issues and questions following the initial
reinforcement; (c) the development of a menu of backup reinforcement options to award appropriate behavior, (d) the creation of an explicit protocol for exchanging primary reinforcers for backup reinforcers, and (e) the development of procedures for fading the use of the token economy system (Wolery et al.). As a result, the token economy is only one example of a range of behavioral techniques which link the delivery and acquisition of tokens to specified behavioral expectations. The differentiating feature of token economies from other systems of token reinforcement, therefore, is the understanding that tokens are later traded or exchanged for items that hold greater perceived value.
intervention is implemented as intended.
The program does not require technology for implementation.
use of the program.
The interventionist must at a minimum be a paraprofessional.
Training manuals and materials are available. The token economy has been operationalized in several scholarly resources and a number of manuals have been developed to assist practitioners develop formal implementation procedures (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007).
There is no ongoing support available for practitioners.
- See more at: http://www.intensiveintervention.org/chart/behavioral-intervention-chart/13159#sthash.LCUVbDhX.dpuf
Interactive DBI ProcessIntensive intervention helps students with severe and persistent learning or behavioral needs. The Center's approach to intensive intervention is data-based individualization (DBI).
What is DBI?DBI is a research-based process for individualizing and intensifying interventions through the systematic use of assessment data, validated interventions, and research-based adaptation strategies.Click on the components in the graphic to learn more about the steps in the DBI process and find relevant resources.
Click here to learn more about DBI. View this video to learn why intensive intervention and DBI are critical.
Creating a Token Economy"Token economy" is a fancy way of saying "reward system based on some sort of fake currency like stickers or points". Teaching a parent to create an effective token economy for their child can result in a quick and significant improvement in their behavior. Token economies are a common tool for parents whether or not their children are having behavioral issues. Parents who are struggling to make their reward systems work might benefit from the tips described in this worksheet. Seemingly minor pitfalls, such as not following through with rewards in a timely manner, poorly defined goals, or
taking away earned points, can totally derail a token economy. Work closely with a parent to troubleshoot any problems.
Beginning of the Year: The Dos and Don’ts of a Token Economyby Sasha | Aug 23, 2013 | Behavior, Interventions | 2 comments
Token economies are popular classroom management tools. It’s an effective intervention that is
relatively easy to set up and implement – if done correctly. A token economy can be extremely
successful at increasing appropriate behaviors, task completion, and academic skills. Wooho, right?!
And if you are successful at increasing all these fabulous responses it will in turn decrease the bad
behaviors that are ruining your life (okay… dramatic). You can’t be working quietly on your
worksheet and be talking to your friend at the same time can you?
So, what is a token economy? A token economy is a system for delivering positive reinforcement
to children for engaging in desired behaviors or completing tasks. Target behaviors are set and
tokens are delivered by the teacher when children display the target behaviors. The tokens are
exchanged for back-up reinforcers at a designated time.
So yes – token economies can be an amazing ball of wonderfulness…. if done correctly. If done
incorrectly, get ready for no student buy-in, no participation, and an all around unsuccessful
intervention and huge waste of your time (not to scare you but be afraid). Check out these Dos and
Don’ts to make sure your token economy rocks!
The Dos:
Do pick target behaviors that are incompatible with negative behaviors. The first thing you need to
do when setting up a token economy is pick target behaviors. Target behaviors can be behavioral
(sitting in seat, walking in hallway, etc.) or related to academics (completes 3 centers, finishes
worksheets, doing quiet reading, etc.). Pick behaviors that your students cannot do while doing
negative behaviors (especially ones that commonly occur in your room!). You can’t do quiet reading
while talking to your friends. You can’t walk and run in the hallway at the same time.
Do include a variety of reinforcers. The beauty of the token economy is that is works for a group of a
variety of types of children. So you need to include rewards that are motivating to a variety of
students. A token economy will not work if the prizes are all similar. You need a wide range of types
of reinforcers for both boys and girls, different interests, and higher quality reinforcers.
Do set up a schedule for delivering reinforcement. Decide if you will be using a time schedule or
response schedule. In a time schedule, you could use a time interval (ie. every 5 mins, 10 mins etc.)
and whichever students are doing the target behaviors earn tokens. Response schedules would be
based on when students are doing the target response. Will you be giving tokens for every target
response? Roughly every other response? Every 5 responses?
Do be consistent with all students and in all subjects/classrooms. You want this system to be
consistent. Your students will pick up if you are not using this intervention in certain areas or with
certain students and you will lose buy in.
Do be excited and enthusiastic. If you think the system is stupid and aren’t into it, so will your
students. Your token economy is the most amazing, exciting, and cool thing you have ever heard of.
That excitement will wear off!
Do include visuals and plan for differentiation. Students with special needs are included in many
classrooms. Make sure this system is accessible for them. Make visuals for students with lower
receptive language so they understand what is expected of them and how the system works. Here is
one I use:
Do make sure your ‘costs’ for reinforcers that can be achieved. So how much will your reinforcers
‘cost’? In order to set these costs – you need to look at how often the target behaviors are currently
occurring. So take a quick baseline. If your target behaviors are – sitting in your desk, doing your
work, and raising your hand without shouting out, look at how often these are happening (or aren’t
happening) before you implement your token economy.
Do pair tokens with praise. This will help when you need to fade this system. For some students –
praise is not reinforcing so you need to train praise as a reinforcer!
Do take data. Keep it simple but make sure to take some kind of data so your know if you token is
(or isn’t) working.
Do have a plan for fading. This is the hardest and most easily forgotten aspect of a token economy.
This system will eventually not work if you keep it the same! Additionally since this is a contrived
system of reinforcement, you want to fade this to a naturally occurring system of reinforcement.
Fading can be tricky and you need to have a plan in place for this before you. Think about getting
new reinforcers that are more ‘expensive’ (need more tokens to buy). Or maybe you will lengthen the
time between when you buy your rewards. Start at once a day then twice a week then once a
week. Gradually start giving less tokens – every 8 responses then every 10 etc.
Do pick tokens that are age appropriate. I hate seeing smiley face stickers in junior high
classrooms!
The Don’ts:
Don’t let you students go “bankrupt” with no opportunity to earn more reinforcers. Some token
economies have a ‘response cost.’ That means you can lose points for using certain ‘bad’ behaviors.
This can be helpful for some students that need extra motivation to avoid losing points or tokens.
However, I have seen a LOT of token economies that use this system with no way for students to
earn more tokens. If a student has lost all their points with no way to earn more – than they have
nothing to lose. They can be as crazy or as horrible as they want and who cares – they can’t earn a
reinforcer anyways.
Don’t forget to follow through with reinforcers. This is the easiest way to lose student buy in.
Don’t pick too lofty of goals or too many behaviors. I have seen token economies that are set up so
perfectly to address every goal and issue in the classroom …. but are so complicated that the
teacher can in no way implement it. Don’t forget you are still going to be teaching while implementing
this system. It needs to be something easy, easy, easy! If you can’t remember off the top of your
head which behaviors you are targeting – neither will your students!
Don’t make the cost of buying reinforcers unattainable. Who is going to work towards something that
is too hard to achieve? Start by making easy to reach goals and increase slowly from there.
Don’t leave the same system in all year. See the ‘Do have a plan for fading.’ This is so important I
included it twice!
Don’t make it too complicated. Getting redundant – I know. But again, this is so critically important.
Simple is better especially when you start. You can always make it more complicated later but it’s
much harder to make a complicated system easier.
Good luck in all your token economy endeavors!
I linked up with What the Teacher Wants – Management Monday Linky Party. Go check out some
other great behavior management ideas
Token Economy"One of the most important technologies of behaviour
modifiers and applied behaviour analysts over the last 40 years has been the token economy"
- Matson and Boisjoli (2009, p. 240)
What is a Token Economy?Within an educational setting, a token economy is a system for providing positive reinforcement to a child or children by giving them tokens for completing tasks or behaving in desired ways.
Token economies are used as a method of strengthening a behaviour, or increasing its frequency, because the tokens are a way of “paying” children for completing tasks and the children can then use these tokens to buy desired activities or items (Miltenberger, 2008).
Interestingly, ‘tokens, in the form of clay coins, first appeared in human history in transition from nomadic hunter-gather societies to agricultural societies, and the expansion from simple barter economies to more complex economies’ (Hackenberg, 2009, p. 257; Schmandt-Besserant, 1992).
How does a Token Economy work?
The basic principle is that a child earns a certain number of tokens by engaging in desired behaviours (called “target behaviours”) and can then exchange these tokens – effectively using them as payment – to gain access to backup reinforcers.
The basic "cycle" of a token economy.
The target behaviours could be anything. For example, completing academic tasks like getting a certain amount of spellings correct, or it could be saying hello to their teacher in the morning, or playing nicely with their peers.
What a target behaviour will be depends on each individual child. Some token economies could be used to increase a child’s desire to complete academic tasks while another token economy could be used to decrease the amount of aggression a child engages in by giving tokens for not engaging in aggressive behaviours.
What is a Back-Up Reinforcer?A backup reinforcer is an activity, item or privilege that the child likes and enjoys. The token economy works because the tokens become paired with the earning of the back-up reinforcers and the child only gets tokens for engaging in desired behaviours (Miltenberger, 2008). Therefore the target behaviours (should) occur more often.
What does a Token Economy Chart (or Mat) Look Like?There is no one single type of token economy chart. Some will have a space where an image of something being earned - a reinforcer - can be placed (as in the image below), others will have space to write down what is being earned while others will be used only to record how many tokens have been earned.
For token charts where there is no place for a reinforcer there will typically be some method of choosing from a group of possible reinforcers once the chart is filled up or there might be a list of reinforcers that all "cost" different amounts and it is up to the student to decide when they want to trade in their tokens for a specific reinforcer.
One example of a token economy chart with space to place a PECS sized reinforcer and twelve tokens.
Money is a type of TokenThe world economy where people go to work, do their job to earn money and then spend this money for things they want or need is pretty much identical to a classroom token economy. The money you earn from employment itself isn’t really what you want – it is a means to an end. What you really want is what you buy with your money because getting money means you get desired items and activities (e.g. car, house, jewellery, food).
For a classroom token economy, a child will go to school, complete academic tasks to earn tokens and then spend these tokens for back-up reinforcers. Again, the tokens aren’t really what the child wants. Just like our money, the tokens are a means to an
end – getting tokens means getting things the child wants (e.g. 5 minutes playing a computer game, a break from work, chocolate, sweets).
Comparing the world economy to a classroom token economy.
What can be used as tokens?The term “token” suggests something physical that you can hold in your hand. Some token economies do use physical objects such as poker chips, printed cards with smiley faces, fake money or even marbles.
However, not all tokens are like this, some might just use a tick on a sheet of paper, a hole punched in a card or a stamp put onto a card (Foxx, 1998). These “non-physical” tokens are sometimes called “points” (Miltenberger, 2008).
In Kazdin and Bootzin’s (1972, p. 343-344) review of token economies, they cite Ayllon and Azrin (1968) regarding a number of advantages in using tangible items for tokens. These include:
‘the number of tokens can bear a simple quantitative relation to the amount of reinforcement
the tokens are portable and can be in the subject's possession even when he is in a situation far removed from that in which the tokens were earned
no maximum exists in the number of tokens a subject may possess
tokens can be used directly to operate devices for the automatic delivery of reinforcers
tokens are durable and can be continuously present during the delay
the physical characteristics of the tokens can be easily standardised
the tokens can be made fairly indestructible so they will not deteriorate during the delay
the tokens can be made unique and nonduplicable so that the experimenter can be assured that they are received only in the authorised manner.
In addition, tokens provide a visible record of improvement. This may facilitate social reinforcement from staff members, as well as self-reinforcement.’
Advantages of a Token EconomyAccording to Kazdin and Bootzin (1972, p. 343) the use of tokens as a method of delivering reinforcement through the child exchanging them for back-up reinforcers has a number of advantages. For example, they:
‘bridge the delay between the target response and back-up reinforcement
permit the reinforcement of a response at any time
may be used to maintain performance over extended periods of time when the back-up reinforcer cannot be parcelled out
allow sequences of responses to be reinforced without interruption
maintain their reinforcing properties because of their relative independence of deprivation states
are less subject to satiation effects
provide the same reinforcement for individuals who have different preferences in back-up reinforcers
may take on greater incentive value than a single primary reinforcer’
Additionally, Miltenberger (2008) highlights how:
Positive reinforcement, via the tokens, can be provided immediately after the target behaviour occurs.
A token economy is structured therefore there will be consistency with how positive reinforcement is delivered for target behaviours.
A child’s future planning skills can be developed because different amounts of tokens need to be earned for different types of backup reinforcers and the tokens must be kept until enough has been earned.
Things to Consider with a Token Economy If an economy is being implemented at a large scale, across a group of individuals and
settings, it may be time consuming and take a lot of effort to organise and train staff to correctly implement it.
Depending on the preferred backup reinforcers, it may be costly to purchase them.
It’s pertinent to check that ‘the expected benefits (improvement in behaviour) justify the time, effort and cost of conducting the programme’ (Miltenberger, 2008, p.513).
Seven Components of a Token EconomyMiltenberger (2008, p.498) lists seven components that need to be defined when implementing a token economy. These are:
'The desirable target behaviours to be strengthened.
The tokens to be used as conditioned reinforcers.
The backup reinforcers to be exchanged for tokens.
A reinforcement schedule for token delivery.
How many tokens are needed to be exchanged for the backup reinforcers.
A time and place for exchanging tokens for backup reinforcers.
In some cases, a response cost component, in which the undesirable target behaviours to be eliminated are identified, together with the rate of token loss for each instance of these behaviours.'
Miltenberger's seven components of a token economy.
One-to-One Token Economy Example
Tarbox, Ghezzi and Wilson (2006) investigated the use of token economies in an effort to increase the eye contact of a 5 year old boy called Adam who was diagnosed with autism. We’re going to go through one of the economies used in the Tarbox et al study and use Miltenberger’s (2008) seven components to describe it.
Target Behaviour: attending to his tutor before the delivery of an instruction; with “attending” defined as making eye contact with the tutor for at least 3 seconds.
Tokens to be used: laminated “star stickers” placed on a “token board”.
Backup Reinforcers: a 90 second break from academic tasks where he could play with preferred toys of his choice.
Reinforcement Schedule: Adam received 1 token every single time he engaged in the target behaviour (made eye contact for 3 seconds).
Rate of Token Exchange for Reinforcers: a total of 10 tokens were required before Adam could earn a backup reinforcer.
Time and Place to Exchange Tokens for Backup Reinforcers: this was done immediately after 10 tokens had been earned. It was completed at the classroom desk.
Response Cost: they did not use a response cost.
Response CostCooper, Heron and Heward (2007) make it clear that a response cost ‘should be saved for those major undesirable behaviours that call attention to themselves and need to be suppressed quickly. The teacher’s or parent’s primary attention should always be focused on positive behaviour to reinforce; response cost should be a last resort and should be combined with other procedures to build adaptive behaviours’ (p. 370).
A response cost is a penalty or fine where tokens are taken away from the child for breaking rules or engaging in inappropriate behaviours. Much like breaking a law such as driving over the speed limit and being fined money for it by the police.
It’s important that children are aware of the rules before any response cost would be used so it’s crystal clear what is a rule and what is a broken rule. Additionally, a response cost should never be used if a child does not already have tokens. Never put a child in “token debt” (Cooper et al. 2007).
A Token Economy is Conditioned ReinforcementThe token economy is a form of “conditioned reinforcement” or “secondary reinforcement” (Malott & Trojan-Suarez, 2006). This is because the tokens are not naturally occurring reinforcers. Naturally occurring reinforcers like food or water would
be classed as “unconditioned reinforcers” or “primary reinforcers” because they do not need to be paired with anything.
The money you earn by going to work is a form of conditioned reinforcement because the money itself is not naturally reinforcing. It is the fact that you can use this money to get desired items and activities like a house, food, cars or holidays.
To expand a little more, imagine you go to work and get given some plastic tokens at the end of the day. It’s unlikely that you’re going to be in any way happy about this. However, if you were told that those tokens could be traded in for an extra day off work, all of a sudden those tokens will become something that you’re going to want to get more of (well for most people anyway).
In this case, the tokens become conditioned reinforcers because they have now been “paired” with the ability to get a day off work. In other words, getting tokens leads to getting a day off work while no tokens means no day off.
In the case of school children, the tokens serve as a way of gaining access to preferred items and activities – therefore, getting tokens leads to getting activities and no tokens means no activities.
Conditioned versus "Generalised" ConditionedIn the example about trading tokens for a day off work, if the tokens could only be traded for a day off then these tokens would be termed “conditioned reinforcers”. If the tokens could be traded for various different desired items and not just one specific thing then they would be termed “generalised conditioned reinforcers”.
The distinction here is about whether the tokens can be traded for only one item/privilege (conditioned reinforcers) or numerous items/privileges (generalised conditioned reinforcers). The money earned through employment is a form of generalised conditioned reinforcement because you can buy any number of things with it.
Tokens used within educational settings are typically “generalised conditioned reinforcers” as well, because they can be traded for a number of different items and activities. This is not always the case though. Sometimes a programme may be implemented where a specific type of token (e.g. red stars) can only be traded for specific activities/items (e.g. a special trip at the end of a school week).
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