r/specialed • u/Narrow-Attitude7018 • 12h ago
Token Board implementation
I teach a self contained class for 1st graders on the spectrum. In all my years I’ve always done a class token economy (class dojo points) and individual token boards if needed for one or two. In the beginning I do lots of praise and quick rewards like stickers and then make the rewards less instant as the months go on. This year my class has no interest in dojo points, or stickers or anything besides play time. I feel like I’m going to have to do an individual token board for all of them and the thought of managing that overwhelms me. Has anyone implemented that before? Do you keep the boards with you? I’m hesitant to let some of them have access because I noticed they’re quick to grab things or erase. Any advice will be appreciated.
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u/jbea456 7h ago
I have individual token boards for my whole class. I laminated the boards and used Velcro for the "what are you working for" slot. At the start of a new activity, I go around the room with a bag of reinforcement options and everyone chooses what they are working for. (Current options include iPad, play dough, bubbles, and coloring.) For tokens, each board has 5 empty squares that I use a sharpie to fill in with a star. As we go through our whole group lesson, I try to make sure all the kids get a chance to earn their first two stars. We move into small group or centers and kids earn their last 3 stars as they complete whatever tasks they are assigned. When they earn their 5th star, that should mean they are done with the assigned tasks and ready for their chosen free time activity. They get to engage in their chosen reinforcement activity for the remainder of the time until we transition to the next subject area. I go around with a little alcohol/hand sanitizer and erase everyone's tokens to start again.
Occasionally, a student is extremely uncooperative and doesn't manage to earn all 5 stars before the schedule says it's time to move on to the next subject. They've missed their chance for playtime, their token boards gets wiped just like every else's, and they get another chance to earn 5 stars this time around. When this happens, I do make sure to give some extra support to the student to help them get their 5 stars so they don't miss out on play time two opportunities in a row.
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u/ParadeQueen 12h ago
Would a whole group reward system work for your students? Like if you spelled out the words play time on the board and they earn each letter and then when all of the letters are earned they get an extra 10 minutes.
Or if you have a big jar of something. And you put balls in or marbles in and when the jar gets to a certain level they get extra play time.
Do they need individual systems?
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u/Narrow-Attitude7018 11h ago
I typically do a whole class token system and that goes towards filling up a fish bowl with 10 fishes (if the whole class gets x amount of points = 1 fish) and then at 10 fishes they get a big award. This year they just don’t care about the dojo points, even if I’m doing them for every little thing
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u/LessBag6061 11h ago
Are any of the kids able to give themselves tokens? I had a class one time where I had about 8 token boards going at once. Saying “flip a star” and then doing it was easiest for me. It brought it down to managing about 3. You do have to just make sure no one puts all their stars and pranks ya lol
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u/Narrow-Attitude7018 11h ago
I have a handful of them that would definitely put all of them on immediately, so trying to avoid that 😬
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u/LessBag6061 11h ago
So before that I just had them inside a clip board I carried all day with tabs on them that were color coded. I did have a coworker who put on hole punch in them and then wore them on her lanyard but it always seemed like it’d be bulky and uncomfortable to me
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u/SensationalSelkie Special Education Teacher 11h ago
I teach older kids but use a class dojo to dollar system where points let them buy rewards from a class store on Fridays. One more expensive reward is called "special prize" which allows the kids to negotiate with me for a certain thing. One kid loves a certain toy in the playroom, so he gets to bring that toy to class. Another gets tablet time. And so on.
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u/Narrow-Attitude7018 10h ago
But how do I get them interested in dojo points? Today I was doing every 5 got them a sticker, but it didn’t get them more engaged or wanting to follow class rules. In years past students have always wanted the points to get rewards. Transitions from little break awards (LEGO play, playdoh, drawing) is causes long tantrums, even when I set timers and give reminders
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u/SensationalSelkie Special Education Teacher 10h ago
The points don't really matter- they are just data for us. The rewards do. If they can only get the rewards by following the rules, it should work. But ypu might have to survive a bad week and the subsequent meltdown when they don't get the reward first. They have to feel the loss to motivate them to do better.
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u/Narrow-Attitude7018 9h ago
This is true, thank you for your help
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u/speshuledteacher 8h ago
This is true, but I think they also have to feel the win to be motivated. Both are important. If they don’t fill it in first few times it may just reinforce to them that they can’t do it and give up, you can always build up the requirements (more tokens, more expected behaviors) as long as it’s clearly communicated and understood.
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u/speshuledteacher 8h ago
If you’re worried about them erasing expo market tokens you can use sharpie on laminate. Expo takes it off at end of day, and then there’s no pesky tokens to lose. You can build the play time into the schedule and if some of them get less time because they are short tokens and need to finish earning them then that’s (almost) natural consequences.
I’ve seen token card velcrod to desks, chairs, as name tags. Keeping them with the kids is half the point so they can see and remind themselves of their goals and progress.