Tag Archive: preferences

“But he doesn’t like anything!” 5 Tools for Identifying Motivators and Reinforcement

October 14, 2016 by - 2 Comments

“But he doesn’t like anything!” 5 Tools for Identifying Motivators and Reinforcement

One of the best ways to enhance our teaching is to understand and respect the things that motivate our learners. We are all motivated by different things, though, and sometimes it can be hard to figure out the specifics of what a particular learner likes well enough for it to be used as reinforcement. Sometimes it’s easy. We all know kids who would do anything for [iPad time; Thomas the Tank Engine, Super Why, Pokemon, Hello Kitty] or [you fill in the blank]. We can use those in formal and informal ways to keep these learners motivated and engaged. And that’s important because, often, what we are asking them to do is hard. But sometimes, we work with people for whom those ‘magic motivators’ aren’t so clear. The ‘typical’ reinforcers don’t seem to work for those folks, and that can slow down progress. How can we figure out what motivates... [Read More...]

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Communication Connections

January 19, 2013 by - Leave your thoughts

Communication Connections via Requesting and Choice Making

The January Strategy of the Month has focused on requesting and choice making. These are really fun goals to implement. They fall under the  communication function that helps us meet our own needs (Behavioral Regulation).  When we get what we want, there is  a sense of control over the environment & we increase symbolic communication/language, and self-sufficiency.  It’s all good. The assumption for all requests and choices is that the learner ‘likes’ what they have asked for.  This is what makes the process so much fun, we get to do activities and have interactions that are positive and motivating. If only it was that easy… Sometimes it is not… But do not worry…there are plenty of solutions for common (and not so common) problems when teaching requesting and choice making.  As always,  set the stage for a positive TEACHING paradigm and then move to problem solving if necessary (and when it is... [Read More...]

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