Reward Charts | Chart 1 | Chart 2 | Chart 3 | Chart 4 | Chart 5 | Chart 6
And now we have a complicated one. Or is it? To understand this chart, you have to understand my autism. Let me set the scene.
- My two 'special interests' are Eddie Stobart and Coca Cola.
- I love inventing new flavours of coke in my head, then telling people about them.
That's all you need to know really, so how does it work? The day is divided into three parts, morning, afternoon and evening. My chart has three crates, one for each part of the day.
In the morning, if I reach my behavioural goal, I get to 'fill' the crate with Coca Cola and an additional flavouring of my choice, I get to visually invent a new flavour of Coke. I then 'load' this into the back of the Eddie Stobart lorry.
I repeat this for the other two parts of the day, and, if I get all three crates into the lorry, I get a "successful delivery" card from Eddie Stobart to put at the bottom on my chart.
At the end of the week, the successful delivery cards are added up and turned into pocket money. As a special bonus, if I get all seven cards, I can go on the internet and print out a new secondary ingredient to add to the chart.
If there were a chance to earn the third crate through doing something extra, like a household chore, then it's worth carrying on. But hey, wait a minute, if I can earn extra crates through doing a chore, that means I can skip my morning target and misbehave, and still make up for it later.
So, there needs to be the possibility of earning a crate through an extra chore, but at my parent's descretion. That way, if I fail in the morning I've not definately blown it, but still may have, which causes me uncertainty. Now I hate uncertainty, it makes me anxious, and I hate feeling anxious, so over time I learn its actually in my best interest just do the whole thing properly!
This chart is an example of a highly individualised reward system, and shows the benefits of really knowing a child's autism, and what 'floats their boat'.