Token economy how does it work

A backup reinforcer is also a critical component of a well-established token economy. A backup reinforcer is what a child gets to trade in their tokens for.

This could be a smaller reward such as access to a book, a toy, or additional time on the playground. This will further drive them to display the behavior you are targeting so that they can earn more tokens. A proper token economy system must be set up and this process can be time consuming. You will also need to decide if there will be penalties and if so, how many tokens will be taken away for undesirable behaviors tokens removed for undesirable responses.

They can then exchange these tokens, essentially using them as a form of currency to gain access to backup reinforcers. The desired or target behaviors vary per client and could include, getting a certain amount of spelling words correct, greeting their teacher in the morning or interacting with other children during recess.

Conversely, tokens might also be used to discourage other behaviors such aggression. If a child demonstrates a calm demeanor when speaking with teachers, they would receive a token for not being hostile.

If a child engages in aggression or stereotypy, tokens may be delivered during times they are not engaging in these behaviors. A backup reinforcer is an activity, item or privilege that the child enjoys.

It acts as a reward. Additionally, a response cost should never be used if a child does not already have tokens. This is because the tokens are not naturally occurring reinforcers. 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. 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.

The money earned through employment is a form of generalised conditioned reinforcement because you can buy any number of things with it. This is not always the case though. Sometimes a programme may be implemented where a specific type of token e. To change or withdraw your consent choices for VerywellFamily. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data.

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