Reinforcement

As mentioned earlier, negative reinforcement is effective when used in routines and activities that are mildy aversive to the toddler. When using negative reinforcement, identification of mildly aversive, non-preferred activities and tangible items is critical to ensure that the toddler is motivated to use the target behavior to avoid or get rid of the aversive activity or item. As with positive reinforcement, team members and families begin with an assessment of preferred and non-preferred items or activities.

Team members conduct a negative reinforcement assessment that identifies preferred or nonpreferred activities, events, and items that produce positive and negative reactions in the toddler with ASD.

The EI team and family come together to:

• Make a list of preferred and nonpreferred activities, events, and items

The EI team give examples to the family to help them begin to consider activities and events if needed. These may include washing hands, turning on water faucet, sitting for extended periods of time, waiting for materials to be available, certain food, certain toys, certain textures and so on.

• Observe the toddler

During the observation they direct the toddler to engage in various activities and with various toys and other items. They look for the toddler’s response (e.g., positive, negative, disinterested). If the toddler makes evasive movement or negative vocalizations (e.g., turning away, physically resisting, crying, screaming, dropping to the floor, yelling), or engages in interfering behaviors (e.g., self-injury, aggression, disruption, trying to leave) they allow the toddler to leave the activity or offer another object. Observe if the behavior decreases when the aversive event, activity, or object is removed.

The following table can be used to document the toddler’s reactions to presented activities, events, and items and the toddler’s reactions when aversive activities, events, and items are removed. Sitting in seat is clearly an aversive for Aiden. From the observation, the team also has a list of potential reinforcers to support intervention – Elmo, water play, etc.