| Abstract: | The benefits of token economies have been widely established, however there are very few empirical studies on the effects of token reinforcement on the behavior of young children with autism. The establishment of conditioned reinforcers such as tokens may be important in interventions for children with autism. Token reinforcement was used to increase the attending behavior of a young child with autism during discrete trials instruction for academic and communication skills. A reversal design showed that token reinforcement sustained attending only when the back‐up reinforcer was available and was accessed immediately. The results extend and corroborate findings on token reinforcement reported in other applied settings and are also consistent with findings from basic research on conditioned reinforcement. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
