Behavior Mini-Course Episode 6 - It's All About the Non-Traditional

Welcome back to the 10 Quick Wins for Behavior Change. Now is the time to lean in to those non-traditional reinforcers. This is a fun topic to talk about, and I have a great download for you with today's video. So we have 2 student interest surveys. One is a staff-focused one. This would be great to give to a gen ed teacher if you're consulting, or have a paraprofessional that works closely with that student fill it out. And I also have a parent version, and this is going to help you really identify what are your students' unique interests. Reinforcement is individual to each person. We all have different preferences, likes, preferred activities, even favorite TV shows. We all just have different things we like to do, and that's just okay. Now, some of our learners may have untraditional interests. These are things that maybe aren't on our choice menus, they're not in our prize bins, they're just not topics that are a regular part of our conversation. And guess what? That's just okay too. Lean into those unique interests. First of all, these could be potential reinforcers, and these could be potentially really high-powered reinforcers that we could really work into our classroom in a huge way. These are also great ways to build rapport. Guess what? I love the Real Housewives. I know, it's trashy, I don't care. And if someone's gonna wanna talk to me about Real Housewives, oh wow, suddenly I'm like connected with that person. I'm like, "Yes, let's talk about our favorite Real Housewives shows, and let's talk about what happened last week." That's a way I can build a friendship and rapport with someone. Same thing with your students. When you show interest in what they are interested in, that's how you build a connection. That's how you show them that you see them and you see their unique interests and you're interested in that. Such an important, essential way to build up a relationship with a learner. And last, this is how you can make tasks engaging. If you want to make your academic tasks fun and exciting and you want it to be on theme with things your student's interested in, guess what? You need to know what they're interested in so we can really tie this into our academic and other types of tasks. Now I want to tell you two funny stories about some untraditional interests and untraditional reinforcers that former students and former clients of mine have had. First up is when I was pregnant with my oldest child. When I was pregnant with her, I used that app on my phone that showed like the size of a fruit that was equivalent to the baby, right? You know what I'm talking about? And I only went in to see this student about once a month, and I don't know how this started, but he became obsessed with looking at my phone to see what the fruit or vegetable was. And every time when I would come once a month, you know, the therapist that he was working with was like, "All right, when Miss Sasha comes, we're gonna look at her phone at the end of the session." And his mom was dying. She's like, "I keep explaining this is a baby, but I think he really thinks there's a pineapple in your belly. That's why it's blowing his mind." And yeah, we, we did that, right? You want to look at my— the app my phone. Great. Let's do that. Here's my favorite one. Now you guys know this guy, right? Maury Povich. You know him, you love him. I think he's still living his best life doing this show. He's probably a billionaire and just doesn't care, right? So I had a former student who was obsessed with Maury Povich, guys, and he was obsessed with Maury Povich, but mostly he wanted to play Maury Povich with me. And he particularly loved the episodes where someone was getting the paternity test results. They were being told if they were the father or not. The ultimate most high-powered reinforcer for this child was playing Maury Povich with me where when he was Maury and I was the contestant or, you know, person on the show and he would give me the paternity test results. And now the most fun part of this show is the explosive reaction. There's always an explosive reaction. And did I do this and play with him Maury Povich? Heck yeah, I did. We played Maury Povich all the time. Did I look ridiculous? Absolutely. Did I care? Not at all. I was excellent. I think I missed my calling as an actress. And guess what, guys? This kid made so much progress because you— we were using such a high-powered reinforcer of playing Maury Povich that we had to redo his IEP 6 months into the school year because he had by far surpassed his academic goals. This is the power of these unique interests, these really high-powered reinforcers. My last example here is also with a celebrity. You know this guy, Ricky Martin. I had I had a former client who loved Ricky Martin, and this was not like all Latin singers. This was very Ricky Martin specific. So I shared one great way you can use untraditional reinforcers is to tie it into your work tasks. And that's what we did. We made a lot of work tasks that were Ricky Martin themed. That's a sentence I never thought I would say, but we made listening comprehension activities that were about Ricky Martin. When we did— worked on math word problems, it was Ricky Martin going to the store to buy apples. When we did reading comprehension, it was about Ricky Martin's birthday. So we tied this into activities that he was doing, and it made him want to do those activities. He would ask his mom if he could do his work tasks and his programs at home for fun. I mean, that's where we want to be. So guys, I want you to think about what are your students' Ricky Martin and Maury Povich? What is their unique interest? Something they want to do, something they want to talk about that you can hone in on and utilize within your classroom. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]