How to Motivate Students to Acquire New Skills and Behaviors and Maintain Acquired Skills: Methods for Discovering Reinforcers

In less than 3 weeks, the new school year will begin, and it seems that my colleagues and I—specialists and teachers—are ready. We have developed the initial format for the therapeutic and educational plans for our male and female students. We may check the appropriateness of the goals for their current level, as it might have regressed—that is, of course, if they did not join good summer programs—and we may have an idea about the instructional strategies that we will use with them, as we all hope to start a new school year and provide a service of higher effectiveness and efficiency.

However, what is most important is how to achieve these set goals for them, and the procedures followed to help them acquire skills and reduce undesired behaviors. Although an instructional session for children with special needs requires enriching it with activities and learning opportunities, prior preparation and organization are essential. This is not achieved merely by being physically present with the child inside the therapy room while numerous question marks surround the specialist and the child. An educational session requires a kind of engineering such that the specialist is aware of every corner of the space and what it contains, in addition to knowing everything the child likes and prefers, utilizing that to teach them new skills and behaviors and to follow the routine in the session (or the school day).

A child with special needs may have low motivation toward learning what is new, or may engage in an undesired behavior as a means of communication, and it may seem to us that this is a characteristic of individuals with special needs, while the truth is otherwise. Therefore, the specialist plays the greatest role in discovering everything that motivates the child, having a list of activities and items to use to reinforce and motivate the child when working on teaching them, helping them acquire new skills, and maintaining acquired skills, diversifying their use with the child without focusing on a single motivator so that the reinforcer does not lose its value through the child reaching satiation. There are many systematic methods that help the specialist identify the child's preferred activities, items, and foods (such as: dried fruits, sweets, and potato chips) by assessing the preference for these items and the child's degree of interest in obtaining them.

It is not necessary to apply all of these methods; rather, we choose the method that suits the student and fits the situation they are in. However, based on my experience and study in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis and special education, here I briefly list some of them:

First: Asking the parents or people who know the child well about the things they like. This method may be easy, but its degree of reliability may be low.

The other method: Presenting activities/stimuli individually: This is done by presenting preferred items individually and measuring the time the child spends playing/interacting with this stimulus, as well as the speed of response toward each stimulus. For example, the specialist presents the preferred items to the child individually, waits for the child's response toward it and the time spent engaging with the toy, and after the child leaves it, another is presented; the information obtained by the examiner from direct observation is recorded on a recording form (electronic or paper).

Third: Choosing between two items, or what is known as paired assessment: This is done by presenting an array of activities/stimuli (for example, 6 activities/items/foods) in pairs before the child randomly across repeated trials, calculating the count and percentage of times the child selects those stimuli across all trials, and comparing that to the other items. For example, the specialist gathers six reinforcers, presents two at a time to the child, and records what the child chose from the two each time.

Fourth: Presenting multiple activities/toys with replacement: This is done by presenting all activities before the child and measuring the order of their initiative to obtain each of these toys, returning it to the array each time. To clarify, the specialist presents a number of preferred items arranged before the child such as (candy, chips, ball, teddy bear, car) and asks the child to choose; if the child chooses the teddy bear, they play with it for five seconds, then the specialist takes it and rearranges them again while keeping all items before the child.

Fifth: Presenting multiple stimuli without replacement: This is done by presenting all stimuli/activities/foods before the child, and after they choose one, it is recorded on the recording form and that stimulus is removed until we identify the highest- and lowest-preference stimulus for the child, or until the child stops choosing. For example, the specialist presents an array of activities/toys/items before the child such as (candy, chips, ball, teddy bear, car) and asks them to choose. If the child chooses the ball, the specialist allows them to play with it for five seconds, then the specialist takes it and rearranges the remaining items (without the ball the second time), and so on until the child finishes choosing all of them or stops choosing.

Finally: Systematic observation restricted to specific items. Simply put: the observation setting contains a specific number of activities and toys, and the child is restricted to choosing from what is available. In contrast, there is free observation, in which the specialist applies this method in the park, for example, leaving the child to choose whatever they want without intervention, only timing how long the child engaged in that activity.

These are some methods that may help us as specialists and teachers discover reinforcers and preferred activities for our students; however, we must balance and exercise our clinical judgment between assessments that take a long time and those that take a short time, what is suitable for one student over another, and the timing of conducting these assessments. For example, we use a brief method if we have a busy schedule and do not have sufficient time to conduct a lengthy reinforcer preference assessment.

We must take into account the student's mental age, communication level, and whether they have behavioral problems that might hinder or affect the implementation of the reinforcer assessment. Also, we must diversify the types of activities used and not focus solely on using food. It is preferable to conduct these assessments and identify reinforcers periodically, which may reach several times throughout the day or therapy session.

In conclusion, a specialist or teacher using one of these methods or combining several makes it easier to deliver a flexible and enjoyable therapeutic/educational session or class in which the child gets what they like, making it easier for the specialist to manage the session systematically, assist the student in acquiring new skills, and maintain acquired skills, thereby making the service provided of higher effectiveness and efficiency.

Written by: Ms. Nour Al-Huda Mousa

Originally published in Arabic. This English version was produced with AI-assisted translation; the Arabic original remains the reference.