Saying "if you are tidy at dinner, you get a star. Get five stars and I'll give you a new book" has several problems for my autistic children - the star is boring. It doesn't relate in any logical way to dinner. The passage of time is fairly meaningless, they have difficulty understand that it is one star per day. And most importantly, despite loving books, they forget that the book is the end reward (I couldn't leave it in view as they'd steal it), and it also fails to relate to dinner, or stars on a chart. All in all, the idea simply doesn't make SENSE to them.
How to motivate?
I realised that one thing they do like - is the reward charts themselves. They're not motivated by the outcome of "getting five stars", but they are motivated by the STARS THEMSELVES. I've been pondering for quite some time how to use this realisation to come up with a new approach, and think I've got it figured out.
The reward chart, IS the reward.
I came up with the idea of using a paper airplane printable, and marking each section on it with a number (ie. 7 sections, for 7 days of the week - whatever number of reward 'stars' you need). I tend to keep time periods for rewards short, usually five days.
When the child accomplishes the task/goal for the day, they can colour in a section (or perhaps put a sticker on it, whatever floats their boat). I find it important to have the "reward time" at the same time every day. When they reach their final goal, they can cut out the plane, make it, and fly it!
An example of a printable plane:
There are all sorts of printable origami crafts, masks, flowers etc available - my boys are particularly interested in planes, so this suits their interests. Any sort of craft would work, as long as you can clearly define "sections" to use as "star spots", and you may need to find a craft that relates directly to the goal you're trying to achieve - a toilet cutout for using the bathroom? Hand shaped crafts for washing hands? A box to represent tidying up toys?
My daughter would love a butterfly craft: http://www.magicalkingdom.co.uk/craftlisting.htm
How about little paper boxes, bags, or tags to colour and hang on things? http://familycrafts.about.com/od/creativepaper/Paper_Craft_Projects.htm
Origami! http://www.origami-fun.com/
There are so many possibilities. This has worked very well for us - you can use virtually any sort of paper craft, as long as the end result requires some effort (cutting, colouring or gluing) and can be played with or used in some way. In fact, I've been amazed at how effective it's been as a motivating tool, and certainly a LOT cheaper than the endless array of other motivational aids I've tried through the years.
