Once you’ve conducted your preference assessment, it’s time to rank those reinforcers! Creating a reinforcer hierarchy is going to give you a quick look at which reinforcers your students like and how much they like them. Why is this information important? I find that using reinforcers from different parts of the hierarchy is appropriate for different times of the day or activities.
Let’s say I have a skill that is harder for a student or something they don’t particularly like doing. Am I going to pull a reinforcer from the low end of their hierarchy or am I going to pull that highly desired reinforcer? You better believe, I’m pulling the highly preferred reinforcers out for those harder skills.
On the other hand, there are other skills that may be easier for my students and we’re working to maintain those skills. That’s when I’ll probably choose a low to mid range reinforcer.
Of course, reinforcement is always best when students choose what they’re working for and you set a deal. That doesn’t mean that I can’t hand out tokens faster for a more challenging skill while waiting longer periods of time for a less challenging skill. My student may be working for access to the same reinforcer for a portion of their day, but I may time the payout to happen during those harder skills.
There are also times that specific reinforcers may not be available. If I gave my students free access to their most preferred reinforcer throughout the day, they’re probably going to satiate before we get to that difficult skill. As you get to know your students, you’ll know when you can limit access to specific reinforcers. Are there some students who only work for ONE thing on our classroom and never seem to satiate, sure. But these are things I’ve learned as I work with students and you’ll learn those things in your classroom, too.
How to Review Your Reinforcer Data
Before I can start putting together a reinforcement hierarchy, I need to look at the data I collected. Remember all that great data you collected during your preference assessment? Now is the time to bust it out and dive into it!
When I review my data, I am looking for which items my students played with and how long they played with them. If they picked up a doll and put it down, then they picked up the train toy and played with it for 20 minutes, I can assume they like trains way better than they like dolls. By analyzing the time spent with different items, I can start to see trends in my data.
Whether I’m looking at data on my data sheets or transfer it into a list, it’s usually pretty easy to see trends. I’m able to see which toys students played with multiple times. I can also see which toys they played with for long periods of time. I can assume these are some of their favorites.
Creating a Reinforcer Hierarchy
Once I’ve reviewed my data, I’m ready to start creating a reinforcer hierarchy. To get started, I grab a preference sheet and place chosen reinforcers on it. This is where I determine if an item appears to be a low level, mid level, or high level reinforcer. I jot these down on my hierarchy sheet.
My goal is to have 3-5 reinforcers at each level. If I can come up with more potential reinforcers, that’s even better! Once I have a list generated, I create copies for my staff. Each staff member has a binder and this lives inside so they can always reference the document.
Creating a Quick Glance Reinforcer Hierarchy
Sometimes I don’t need ALL of the information on the reinforcer hierarchy. That’s when I create a top 5 list for students. On this list, I jot down the 5 tried and true reinforcers for students. These are great to print and post around your classroom so you don’t have to read a ton of information.
I find these are great for things like circle time where you may want to provide 1:1 reinforcement for desired skills. If you see a student engaging in a desired behavior or skill, you can quickly provide access to something on their list.
Reviewing Your Reinforcer Hierarchy
The best part about using a reinforcer hierarchy is that they are working documents. Let’s say you had a student who loved dinosaur toys at the beginning of the year and you’re noticing they don’t seem to like them nearly as much any more. Maybe it’s time time move that reinforcer from the high level to the low level group.
I aim to review that data on my reinforcer hierarchy 3-4 times a year minimum. Whenever interests seem to shift, I’ll update the documents, but taking a deep look at students preferences occurs at least 3-4 times a school year.
Ready to conduct a preference assessment in your classroom? I’ve put together all of the forms I use in my classroom so you can implement an assessment in your classroom, too! Just head here to check it out.
