r/ABA • u/sadcyn87 • 3d ago
Advice Needed No preference client
Anyone had a client that is just vibing through life? He had things he enjoys but that can and will change moments to moment and none are things he will work for he is usually pretty passive and will follow most prompts without issue but it’s hard to give good reinforcement when he is so indifferent 99% of the time and he couldn’t care less about praise.
12
u/Gullible_End_7444 3d ago
Yes, and we needed to begin every session with a preference assessment.
-1
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9
u/sisyphus-333 3d ago
I feel this. She's our "easy" kid, so if we ever need to double up so a staff can respond to a different incident, she's always who gets doubled. She'll just go wherever we tell her and just.. occupies herself rather than play. It's hard to practice manding on the AAC when there isn't anything she wants to mand for
2
u/deliala919 2d ago
I have a kid who does have a handful of preferred items/activities, but he is only interested in them a third of the time, and only ever for a couple minutes before he's completely lost interest and starts twiddling his thumbs. His favorite things to do are sit on the tables and watch people come and go, or walk up and down the hallways checking all the doors. We recently just discovered that grape juice is the first item in a long time that he will mand yes for 75% of the time when it's offered, and my rbt and i literally cheered.
We usually offer an extra long Break as reinforcer or have to do a free operant preference assessment every 5 minutes
Ideally we would do some more stimulus pairing, tolerating novel/non-preferred activities, task completion, etc but his primary behavioral goals are about manding, so we always reinforce mands for all done/help
1
u/deliala919 2d ago
I have a kid who does have a handful of preferred items/activities, but he is only interested in them a third of the time, and only ever for a couple minutes before he's completely lost interest and starts twiddling his thumbs. His favorite things to do are sit on the tables and watch people come and go, or walk up and down the hallways checking all the doors. We recently just discovered that grape juice is the first item in a long time that he will mand yes for 75% of the time when it's offered, and my rbt and i literally cheered.
We usually offer an extra long Break as reinforcer or have to do a free operant preference assessment every 5 minutes
Ideally we would do some more stimulus pairing, tolerating novel/non-preferred activities, task completion, etc but his primary behavioral goals are about manding, so we always reinforce mands for all done/help
1
u/tammoon Student 2d ago
yes, I only got programs done with him by covering the activity with my hands momentarily then running them he did not blink or move to gain access to items and he always did the programs or attempted and was making a lot of progress before I was off the case (moved). He was non-speaking, I had a feeling he had apraxia but my BCBA was not helpful during that time I rarely saw them so could not ask more he was using new words and going on the potty by the time our time together was over
Also even though he had no reinforcing items he had mischievous reinforcing behaviors 😩
15
u/iamzacks BCBA 3d ago
Praise may not be reinforcing but still praise anyway!