Doesn't want to earn points for prizes

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DS6 has massive resistance to earning points for prizes. Unfortunately points, tokens, prizes, and sticker charts are the first technique every therapist and behaviorist we've interacted with seems to gravitate to. What other approaches are out there?

DS's teacher does use a 5 level chart with smiles and frowns, where you move the clip up or down when she catches a child being good or misbehaving. At the top of the chart is prize box, and she's good about making it randomly reinforcing. That seems to work for DS. Also she has the concept of losing minutes of recess when he isn't working, but also gives him the chance to earn the minutes back. Usually he procrastinates and then does a big burst of work just before recess time. So those are two things that work for him.

We're having trouble in two therapy settings. The first is a social skills class that DS was melting down in every week. We switched to 1:1 meetings with the SLP, where he still melted down, saying the center was for "babies" and he shouldnt have to go. She brought in a behaviorist who suggested having DS collaborate in creating a points and prizes system. By the second week he started insisting, "I dont want to earn points.". The meltdowns stopped when we added an afternoon booster to his ADHD meds and he got interested in the SuperFlex books the SLP was reading to him, and he stopped resisting being at the 1:1 session. Now he says he doesn't want to do SuperFlex anymore, and we stll are not yet on a path to joining the other kids in a group.

The other therapy we are attempting is for his food issues. We're working with an OT who uses the 19 step SOS feeding program where you play with food, smell it, and eventually taste it. We're about 6 sessions in, and DS is just completely refusing to participate. Yesterday we only used foods that he eats every day, that I brought from home, and he still was completely misbehaving -- throwing food, spitting, etc. The only consequence that worked was to repeatedly lose/regain Wii priveledges for the rest of the day. I'm convinced at this point it is a "you can't make me do this" behavior to try to get us to drop the therapy. The OT wants to try a points and prizes system. Any other ideas?

Your kid can tell the points are made up. I remember teachers trying to bribe me into behaving. I learned to behave so others around me would talk with me. Sounds like you are pusing them too hard realax a notch.

Well I know one struggle i had was a kid was either I looked unfocused, so that was bad......or if we had an assignment involving 'come up with something and write it down' the first 20 minutes would be spent thinking about what to write, though to some teachers it was 'refusing to do work.' so you might want to check out any possible issues like that as I am sure I'm not the only one on the spectrum who's had issues like that.

Also I can see why the reward system is not helpful...a frowny face if a student is caught mis-behaving? and a smiley face for the 'good' children I think that would be a great way to single out a single student in front of the other kids which might make them feel better about not being 'bad' like that one. But especially for someone with autism that kind of thing can feel pretty degrading as a lot of times people on the spectrum already struggle with being different and the bullying that can bring on.

Also maybe the idea of acting a certain way for a prize just doesn't appeal to him, maybe he finds other things more rewarding.....like reading or drawing or well whatever activities he does enjoy.

Actually the smile chart works really well for DS. Each child has a clip with a number on it (not their name), and the teacher tells them when to go move their clips up and down. They start at one smile, and can move up 4 steps to the prize box. I think the frown face is either more of an implied threat, or mainly used to nip things in the bud with some NT kids. DS has never gotten a frown face for the day (and believe me, with 3-5 meltdowns per day last fall he certainly could've qualified.) The teacher is very talented and her approaches seem to be working well for DS. What I'm wondering is how to get the private therapists to think outside the sticker/points paradigm.

DS's Kindergarten teacher has one of those clip charts. She had to take his clip off the chart and just stop using it with him because it was nearly causing him to have a nervous breakdown. Odd what works for one kid can have a disastrous effect on another child . Something that did work for us which was just a twist on the points and prizes theme was actually giving him quarters. There is a vending machine in the office building where our OT is and he always wants to get something from it. Sometimes I don't have any coins or cash so we can't get anything. Well I told him that if he earned enough quarters then he could use those quarters for the vending machine. Somehow this was more effective than any sticker chart. Perhaps because it was more concrete? I'm not really sure. I guess some would call that flat out bribery but I say whatever works! The other deal we made with him is that for every "Must-Do" he does at school this week, that is the number of video games he will get to play when we go to the bowling alley/arcade near our house. Again, this is just a little different tact in that if he does ANY of the things expected of him he will get a prize and the reward only goes up from there.

That kind of thing never worked for me either. It turned me into a trained seal who would only do a task for the reward at the end. If there was no reward, I wouldn't do the task.

My son was never all that interested in systems like that; they are too symbolic, not immediate, I think. He does things if you convince him it's important, in his own best interest long run. Barring that, he'll respond to something simply being a rule. Or barring that, for something he really wants in one quick step: do this, get this.

He used to do homework problems in exchange for me doing things: silly dances, intense cuddles, stuff like that. Depending on his moods and needs at the moment.