Whatever it Takes!

I have been pleasantly surprised over the past few months with Samuel's responsiveness to incentives (ie.. "reinforcers"). This has been demonstrated to me for almost 2 years in how he follows the visual schedule when our in-home helpers are here, but it really wasn't until last fall that I made it my own tool to work with Samuel.

As Samuel started second grade and I saw how much his academic expectations were being raised, I realized that I was going to have to take action to get Samuel to do his homework. (This has been an ongoing process, see "The Evolution of Samuel's homework) I wanted Samuel to do the work ON HIS OWN, meaning that I would not sit there and verbalize over and over "time to do your work." The incentive: I used a token board with him and after he earned 4 tokens I gave him a small piece of candy. I also scheduled "Your Choice" after he finished his work, meaning that he could decide what he wanted to do (usually play on the computer, or Playstation).I had to spend a lot of time waiting him out. For weeks and weeks he dawdled at the start of each homework session, now he gets to work almost immediately. I'm also finding I don't have to reward tokens as frequently. In fact, tonight I didn't even take the token board or candy with me when we sat down to read a book together. He's getting more interested in finishing up the work and getting on to his fun activity!

Mealtimes are another opportunity to use incentives. In the last few months Samuel has become a very picky eater. His food repertoire has never been that great, but now he is starting to turn up his nose at some old standards like hot dogs and fish sticks. One night last week as Samuel came to the table he started "I'm not eating that." He was saying this about hot dogs, something we never used to have a problem with. I said "Samuel, if you eat your hot dogs I will let you have 3 videos." He ate the hot dogs. Tonight I served him "popcorn fish." He started complaining. I told him "Samuel, if you eat a piece of fish I will let you have a sip of soda." He tried eating one bite and demanded the soda. "No, you have eat the whole piece before you get the soda." He did so and got the soda. Then I had to ask for it back. He gave it back and I told him he could have more if he ate more fish. We went back and forth like this until his fish was gone!

Now I'll have to try this method to get him to sample new foods! I bought a can of spinach with a picture of Popeye on it not long ago, in the hopes that seeing the picture would inspire him to be like him (and eat the spinach!). It worked with my oldest son but not with Samuel!

This reminds me that Samuel is very capable in many things, my challenge in getting him to do things is a matter of making the performance of some activity worthwhile to him. He has an extreme version of the "What's in it for me?" line of thinking. It's something I face with each of my children (making them think something is worth doing), just to a greater degree with Samuel.