Token Economies & Other Motivational Strategies

Within an educational setting, a token economy is a system for providing positive reinforcement to a child or children by giving them tokens for completing tasks or behaving in desired ways.

Token economies are used as a method of strengthening a behaviour, or increasing its frequency, because the tokens are a way of “paying” children for completing tasks and the children can then use these tokens to buy desired activities or items (Miltenberger, 2008).

Interestingly, ‘tokens, in the form of clay coins, first appeared in human history in transition from nomadic hunter-gather societies to agricultural societies, and the expansion from simple barter economies to more complex economies’ (Hackenberg, 2009, p. 257; Schmandt-Besserant, 1992).

What is a Token Economy? by Educate Autism

Helpful Links

• The Dos and Don’ts of  A Token Economy by the Autism Helper
• Vanderbilt 
• Indiana University

This video was filmed at Brennen School, Richardson Park Learning Center, and Richardson Park Elementary School.