**This post about organizing reinforcers in the Special Education classroom contains affiliate links.**
Has this ever happened to you? There’s a student in your class who has unique interests and will only work for 1-2 very specific items. Those items are always in some random place in the classroom and it takes nearly as long to find the item as it does for the student to engage in their reinforcement time. Please tell me it’s not just a problem we had in our classroom. This quick tip for organizing reinforcers in our classroom has been such a game changer!
I came up with a quick and simple solution that helped us keep those prized items easy to find. This is not something I’ve set up for every student in my class, but it has been helpful for a few students.
Here’s what you need to get started:
- a box or bin
- a label for the box or bin if you’re feeling fancy
- some icons of preferred reinforcers
- your student’s preferred reinforcers
- Optional: token board
Once you have those items, toss the preferred reinforcers in the box or bin, add some icons if you want (you could even make the top a token board), and you’re ready to go. I like to keep the matching icons in the box so they’re right where the reinforcers are and we don’t have to search for them in the classroom.
I found somewhere to keep my reinforcer boxes that is central so anyone is able to grab them on the go.
Using a Reinforcer Organization System Throughout the Week
Another great way to use these reinforcer boxes is to have students pick 5-10 items they like and keep them in the box for a week. We usually go through a process to identify and change reinforcers the next week. You can go through the box and the child can decide if it’s still something they would want to work for. If they do, keep it in the box. If not, trade it out.
I usually do this as part of our Monday routine. I’ll tell students, you can pick 10 things to keep in your box this week. Students will either request or place reinforcers in their box. Then we have an easy way to access reinforcers throughout the school day.
Do you have tips for keeping your reinforcers organized? Drop me a comment and let me know!
