For Professionals

Professionals – among them psychologists, teachers, and occupational and speech therapists – often face the challenge of engaging children’s interest in accomplishing tedious tasks, as well as addressing behavior problems which interfere with the learning of new skills. Reward plans are one approach for enhancing motivation. Rewards for Kids! provides novel charts as well as text which gives numerous tips on ways of overcoming resistance and keeping reward plans positive. Since the reward charts and activities are reproducible, the book provides a “toolbox” which can be used with dozens of children over many years.

Included here are comments from some professionals:

Comments from Janet O’Flynn, OTR/L,BCP, of Hamilton, NY, Designer of Charts for Rewards for Kids!:

My experience working with children as an OT in public schools provided inspiration for many of the charts included in Rewards for Kids! I continue to use reward plans and charts in my work. Below I have provided examples of some of the ways I have used reward plans with children.

I have used charts to give wings to my therapy goals. When a goal nears completion, I often find that a brief reward plan will set up the missing link between practicing a skill therapeutically, and establishing it functionally. For instance, when a student has demonstrated improved ability in writing, but the teacher has yet to see it in class, a reward plan makes an immediate difference. I ask students to bring me a finished paper from their class work that shows "beautiful writing." Each example earns a sticker or stamp on a Design-Your-Own-Chart, and the prize for a collection of such papers is something they’ll need for doing their best writing: a fancy eraser or pencil, or "mouth tools" (gum or lemon candy.)

Here’s another example. One of my students is an 8-year-old student who had many behavior problems. Upon evaluation, he was found to have a disorder of sensory integration, including auditory processing problems. While he had been progressing well in OT and Speech, and had become markedly more comfortable and competent at school, the remaining hot spot for him was hallway behavior. During one of the OT sessions, the student and teacher assistant "made a deal." The boy would be given a job (such as turning out the lights, or carrying supplies) which gave him an excuse to be at the end of the line (his favorite position). He would then take responsibility for walking at a reasonable pace and keeping his hands to himself in the hall. Tickets from the book were photocopied (onto oak tag, using the copy machine’s bypass tray), cut apart, and kept in the teacher assistant’s pocket. The teacher assistant quietly slipped the student a ticket each time the hallway journey ended successfully. He then brought them with him to his OT sessions, and redeemed them for a prize.

I have also helped parents choose and set up a chart for use at home, to meet a family’s goal for their child. For example, a 3-½ year old preschooler with sensory defensiveness had made progress in many areas but still was not interested in using the potty. I loaned the book, with the potty-training chapter marked, to the family. They made a copy of the "Welcome to the Zoo" chart, and called me the next week to say the reward plan was working!

When a 7-year-old with a nonverbal learning disability was having trouble getting ready for school, I helped parents set up the "Design Your Own" chart. The left side listed four "things I do in the morning", such as dress, and eat breakfast. Monday through Friday appeared at the top. The child set an egg timer for each of the 4 steps, and was surprised to see that she could do 3 of the 4 steps in 5 minutes apiece. (Breakfast took a little longer.)

An additional use of reward plans has been to improve collaboration with home for the purpose of meeting therapy goals. One 9-year-old who had difficulty with bilateral coordination was reluctant, even after visible improvement during therapy, to ride his bike or to play outside at all. He preferred to stay inside and play video games. His parents and I wanted him to spend time in active movement. We used the Treasure Hunt chart, giving him a chance to hunt for a small prize each time he played outdoors for 30 minutes. The first chart went by fairly quickly; he only missed playing outside on the rainy days. He got his rewards as he went along. The next time he came into therapy, I asked how it was going and he began to talk about "digging a pond," and his hope that rain would fill it. This was a great conversation, and very different from his earlier conversations that only featured video game characters and strategy. We have continued this progress, by contracting with him to earn points on a Design-Your-Own chart, with an "Extra Value Points" option! If he chooses from a list of even more active play options, such as bike riding (with training wheels will be fine), skating, hiking, or shooting baskets, he can fill in two squares on the chart after half an hour of play, instead of just one. This time, I will provide the reward at school.

Comments from Nancy Faulstich, first grade teacher, Watsonville, CA:

I turned to Dr. Shiller's book for one of my first grade students who was completing no assignments. Knowing she loved dinosaurs, I chose a captivating chart called Dinosaur Land and purchased shimmery stickers just for her. She immediately responded to the incentive and began completing her work. After a few weeks she no longer needed the motivation, and several months later she is still generally staying on task. I've tended to
shy away from behavior modification programs, but I found Dr. Shiller's perspective quite humanistic and useful for me in a classroom setting.

Excerpt from Book Review written by Clara Chapman, Ph.D. (a psychologist in independent practice in Middletown, CT) that was published in the Connecticut Psychologist:

…Years ago, I had ample training in reinforcement schedules and Skinnerian principles. But, I have hesitated to use behavior mod techniques with many families because children are not pigeons. Kids come in a variety of ages, temperaments, motivations, personal styles, cultures, and family dynamics. I would not want to use the same sort of behavioral program with an aggressive ten year old that I would with a fearful five year old. Moreover, in a clinical setting, children and their families come in with a wide variety of emotional issues that they need to talk about. But, even if your parents just got divorced, you still can’t hit the baby.

Dr. Shiller has addressed the dilemma of adapting effective behavioral techniques to the “wonderful idiosyncratic nature of human beings and the ways that they interact with their environments.” Her method is to teach parents how to enter into dialogues with their children so that the Reward Plans they develop are customized to their own families and so that both kids and parents are motivated to give them a try. Instead of simply giving the adults rules to follow, she provides explanations of the underlying principles so that parents can themselves learn how to address common behavioral problems in a caring and creative manner. Specific examples are given of such common battlegrounds as struggles over bedtimes, picking on siblings, and homework. She describes for parents how to use humor and creativity in order to enlist the cooperation of their children, so that the children can become able to experience the rewards of self-control. I liked the emphasis on empowering rather than on controlling. In addition, there are lots of cute charts, games and tokens that would be fun to use with kids.

There is something in this book for the experienced clinician, too. I especially liked Dr. Shiller’s discussion of the differences between bribes and rewards – I’ll be able to use that in talking with parents. While she explains the principles in a manner which could instruct a neophyte, she also includes a level of subtlety which is interesting to people who have been doing this for a while. This is a useful and excellent book.