The beginning of the new school year brings so much “new” to your child in the classroom. New teacher, new classmates/friends, new routine, new subjects or things they’re learning, etc. All that new can potentially spark some unwanted behaviors to happen in the classroom. This can look like children calling out in class instead of raising their hand, not putting materials or toys away when done, or not following the directions to the activity. Children with autism may engage in more challenging behaviors such as not wanting to complete an activity, yelling or crying if they have to share something with a classmate and they don’t want to, etc. Whether your child has autism or not, or if you’re a teacher, your goal should be to focus and teach what behaviors you WANT to see, not what behaviors you don’t want to see.

How do you do that, by using Positive Reinforcement!

Positive reinforcement is when a stimuli/something is delivered immediately following the behavior you want to continue to see occur in the future (Cooper et al., 2007). This strategy is something you most likely already use in home or in the classroom but is a great tool to increase the chances of the child to emit the correct behavior in the future if they are getting that reinforcement. Some examples include: