Behavior Tools in Classroom

These are MUST-HAVE tools if you are a special educator or ABA service provider. We work with many students with unique needs- by far, I have noticed FIRST/THEN cards and some sort of TOKEN BOARD are one of the easiest tools for teachers to implement as behavior strategies in the classroom.

Reinforcement is a common occurrence in our daily lives. Receiving a paycheck every month, getting a compliment from a friend, taking a coffee break from work – these are all forms of reinforcement. Some types are more predictable and some take longer to achieve. During ABA therapy, it is always our goal to fade reinforcement from happening continuously so that it’s happening more naturally. One of the tools we often use to accomplish this is a token board. It can take many forms but it’s usually a collection of “tokens” or “points” that when the learner has accumulated all of the points, they get access to a reinforcer. For example, Johnny has a token board with 10 tokens. He gets a token for every correct response and then when he collects all 10 tokens, he gets to play with his cars for 5 minutes. (from How to ABA )

Many students often benefit from structured learning and visual support systems. These FIRST/THEN cards and TOKEN BOARD will provide that structure in learning and make our everyday teaching much more smoothly.

If students are highly verbal or can utilize these tools on their own, it’s even better. We may move onto utilizing a behavior contract as a self-monitoring system. You can always play around to meet each student’s needs. After all, their skill levels are very different from each other. We shouldn’t expect that a SINGLE tool will solve any behavior problems you face in the classroom.