Consistent reinforcement is often dependent on the child or disabled person not attaining the reinforcer when he has not met your goal or targeted appropriate behavior. If he is able to steal or grab the item without permission it is impossible for the parent or teacher to be consisent in reinforcing only appropriate behavior displayed. Some places or methods you might use to secure your reinforcers are included in the following.
1. Place items that are reinforcers such as electronic devices or edibles such as cookies high enough so the child or person you are motivating cannot reach it (ex. on a high shelf in the kitchen) until the appropriate behavior targeted is disabled.
2. Wait until the child goes to sleep and then remove the item earned the previous day and place it in a place the child is not aware of. 
3.  Place items such as cookies, chips, gummy bears that are not easily perishable in a car or trunck of a car. You can use a cooler if needed. Then lock the car after you get out so that the person (ex. child) cannot attain the items without you opening the car trunk. 
4.  Have you items in a token store which is a cabinet or a closet with shelves and a lock on the closet or cabinet so unauthorized access can not be attained until the target behavior has been achieved.
5.  If you are working with a child directly and holding the reinforcers store them in your pocket in a package or plastic bag or wear a pouch with a pocket to store the reinforcers more securely then just placing them on the table you are sitting at with the child. 
6.  You can use coupons for activities which is more secure or token chips to exhange later! 
The above methods will assist you to ensure less conflict over when he has earned the reinforcers and more consistant reinforcement which result in higher rates and speed in learning for your child!

One of the biggest obstacles to teaching your child is realizing that things in life are not free. Parents or Caregivers will be more likely to reinforce once they accept this basic principle of reinforcement. Reinforcers need to delivered consistently.  If your child does do something good then this good behavior should definitely be rewarded.  In contrast, if the child is inappropriate then he should not be rewarded.  The first step is to try to reward any behavior that is positive. For example, if the child cleans his room or eats his breakfast be sure to reinforce your child.  Secondly, when your child cries or tantrums try not to reinforce your child. For example, the most common behavior is for parents to pick up and hug a child when he cries.  In contrast, the parent should realize that this would be giving a reinforcer for free. The child has not performed any appropriate behavior yet he is reinforced. We all work to get money for food and things that we want. We know that we will probably loose our job over time or not get commissions if we do not work.   Consistent reinforcement of behavior will lead to rapid learning and appropriate behavior. 

Children with disabilities, autism and a variety of behavior problems often do not display social skills such as sharing, greeting others, offering to help others, praising others and making small talk. The following are some tips on how to encourage these skills during your child's daily schedule.

1.The first step is to identify the skill you want teach.  Social skills can be taught, which is often not acknowledged by caregivers. 
2. Once the social skills are identified then prioritize which ones you will focus on first. Always work informally on all types of skills so that the training is even faster. Intensive focus on the highest priority skill does ensure that you will make faster progress with the more important skills for the child.
3. There is research that  Sharing and getting along can be reinforced and developed in a child. Some children are friendly and share on their own. The children that do not do this on their own can be taught to do so. Also, if caring and sharing are not encourage a child that is predisposed to be friendly might become less friendly.
4.  During the daily schedule be sure to include time for socializing. If your child's schedule includes only solitary activities such as his ipad or books and chores he may not have any opportunity to socialize and become friendly with others. For example, you can have time to talk at dinner, time for interactive games, talk in the car or at night before they go to sleep.  
5.  Include reinforcers for socializing such as a preferred item or activity if your children play a board game nicely. 
6.  If inappropriate behaviors do occur during the interactive activity be sure to stop the activity. Also,  do not give any preferred activity or item to anyone involved in the interactive activity. 
7.  Modeling and prompting appropriate conversations during interactive games can also be helpful for children. Often the children may not have the skill or forget to perform the skills. Social skills, sharing and friendliness are  important skills since getting along with others affects every area of the child's future including job, how they treat their family members,  friendships and general happiness of your child.

Homework is important not only to assure that your child learns the material from school but also to assure hi future through admission to schools and jobs in the future. The following are some tips on how to motivate your child to do his homework without more than one or two reminders at the most!
1.  Have a regular scheduled time for home in your daily routine. 
2.  Discuss why it is improtant to do homework. For example, if your child wants to be a doctor someday he will need good grades so that he can get into a college and medical school. Also, you can point out to your child if he wants nice things likes cars and a house he will need to earn money and most jobs require an education. 
3.  Parents should discuss with the child what reinforcer he wants for doing his homework all week. For example, if he does his homework he may be given a choice of a desert after dinner or an outing on the week-end or specified amount of time on a computer game he likes.
4.  Parents should periodically check to see if homework is done accurately and discuss the homework with the child to assure that it is actually done adequately.
5.  Have a desk or quiet area where your child can do his homework without distractions that is well lit. 
6.  Make sure your child records any homework in a binder or calender so that he has the homework assignments and does not forget what was assigned. 
7.  Encourage the teacher to send home a weekly or daily report regarding whether all assignments are completed or generally that he is compliant with teachers' instructions. 
8. Encourage your child to talk to other children about homework if they have questions or seek out other resources such as the internet or a library if needed. 
Generally, the effort it takes to encourage your child to do homework may result in big benefits to parents in the long run since the  child will be more likely to succeed and be able to support himself or earn money in the future! 

Parents or Caregivers should be sure to address attempts to perform the inappropriate behavior for the following reasons. 
1. Reoccurrence of the behavior problems-  If you only address the targeted behavior the precursors of the behavior may increase and the behavior may start occurring again if the child does not have consequences or reinforcers for appropriate behavior. 
2. Maintenance long term-  In order to maintain good behavior the program should address even attempts in order to maintain the absence of the behavior problems.
3. Development of appropriate behavior may be reduced- If attempts result in reinforcement then they will continue and the time used to display attempts may not be used for appropriate behavior such as learning to request what the child wants. 

Parents or caregivers might consider the following in choosing a chore for there child.  
1.  Consider the physical abilities and limits of your child. If the chore involves lifting something heavy or using alot of motor movements that the child cannot do easily it will be difficult to motivate them to do the chore. For example, if you want the child to put things away on a high shelf or use a heavy vacuum this should be considered. You might want to purchase a lighter vacuum that does not have a cord in order to make the chore easier and more likely to be preformed. 
2.  The parent should consider the mental or intelligence level in choosing a chore. If you ask a child with a low IQ or to clean his entire bedroom this may be overwhelming and it may not occur. In contrast if you ask the child to put the blanket on the bed and pick up the blocks this may be easier. Giving him simpler chores may be easier for the child to accomplish and to motivate him to do on a daily basis. 
3.  The task should be one that the child might enjoy. Try to match his preferences or reinforcers with the chore. For example a child that likes sensory reinforcement may enjoy the water while washing the dishes. Another example is a chore such as serving guest lemonade may be enjoyed by a child that likes social interaction and praise! 
4.  The parent or caregiver should consider the long term goals for the child in choosing a chore. For example, if the child goals is going to be living with with his natural family (rather than  in a home or a group home) maybe try to choose tasks that are useful to the other people in the household with tasks such as cooking.  If the child is trying to learn a trade for the future making some money for himself perhaps a chore such as washing cars would be useful and he could later work in a car wash. If the child is going to try to work on the computer in the future perhaps helping the family by printing coupons for groceries' will help to develop the skills needed for a job with computer work. 
Generally, all of the above factors should be considered in choosing a task for the child. The caregiver or parent should try to find a task that the child can do, that is enjoyable for the child, that is physically and mentally possible to do and finally that fits in with his long term goals and dreams for the future. This type of chore will be more useful to teach him/her and more likely to be consistently performed by the child. 

People often start to get agitated and then it escalates into a tantrum. Parents and caregivers often have to   deescalate the situation or calm it down after it occurs. The following is a list of possible steps to take beginning with deescalation and then to calming a situation. Each person is different so an observation and analysis of the tantrum behavior will help and is essential to identify which methods to use.
1.  If the caregiver or parent observes any facial expressions, movements or behavior that show agitation it is best to intervene at this point. The intervention can include relaxation techniques, redirection or a cue word to calm the person down.
2.  Once the behavior starts to begin or even when the precursor facial expressions begin the parent/caregiver can redirect the person to another activity or distract them by discussing another topic.
3.  Another method of deescalation is to provide some relaxation methods for the person. Perhaps the person is tired and the caregiver can ask if they want to lay down or take a drink of water to relax. 
4.  Finally, if the behavior has started to occur then usually removing the person from the environment, moving the audience away or ignoring the person and engaging in another activity will deescalate the behavior. 
5. Finally any major reinforcers such as affection or activities preferred should not occur if the behavior has escalated at all into verbal or physical aggression. 
6. Also, in some cases training or physical management might be necessary if tissue dammage is imminent. 7. 7. However, on of the  best way to avoid aggression or tantrusm from occuring is to fill the time during the day with activities and reinforcers for those activities.Finally one should seek advice of a trained Behavior Analyst for aggression or tantrums. 

Exercise is important for children (and adults) with behavior problems, disabilities or autism spectrum diagnosis. Daily exercise can help to relax the child, redirect inappropriate behavior, replace inappropriate behavior with appropriate behavior, exercise can be a reinforcer, exercise can eliminate excess energy that might have been used for inappropriate behaviors. The following is a list of some methods of encouraging and arranging for the behaviors that are called exercise. 
1.  Parents or guardians can arrange a schedule for the day (including the week-end) to make sure that exercise is included each day.
2.  The daily schedule should have the exercise(if it is preferred) after the non-preferred activity (ex. such as homework). If exercise is a non-preferred activity then it should be scheduled before the preferred activity ( such as a computer game). 
3. Exercise can be an organized activity such as soccer or basketball outside or it can be built into the routine. 
For example, when parents go shopping they can park far away from the store so that the child has to walk. 
4.  Exercises should be designed to address any specific weakness the child needs to overcome. For example, if the child has poor fine motor co-ordination with the fingers games with the hands such as shooting basketball, playing with play dough, hand games with clapping, playing the piano or other games that require exercise and movement of the fingers would be great! 
5.  Another example is if the child has poor muscle tone in the stomach exercise such as aerobics with sit-ups. 
6. If the arms are week movements with the arms such as  pull-ups at the park, helping to carry groceries or carrying boxes of toys from the bedroom to the living room.
7. Finally a reward or reinforcer at the end of the day if the schedule is followed is important. The most effective is to have a choice from a token store of a variety of reinforcers or activities that they enjoy as a reinforcer!   
8. Finally social praise is very important throughout the day especially if that is a  major motivator for your child!:)

In choosing which exercises to work on first more frequently in a child with poor motor skills and aspirer or autism one should think about the functional skill deficits of the child. If a child is having difficulty using a fork or spoon then sports or leisure activities that emphasize the hands may be beneficial since you will be strengthening these muscles and movements.  Exercises that stress the lower body are also beneficial but if the priority is to develop self-care skills that require more dexterity then he as the fine motor movements should be emphasized. Some leisure activities such as using an iPad may also improve fine motor skills. 

Finally, one should also consider forks or spoons for example that are easier for the child with motor problems to use. Considering the selection of equipment and leisure or sports activities can be important in promotion of more rapid learning of self-care and daily living skills in children with both motor and Autism or  Attention problems. 

Parents and therapist often are not sure which behaviors to prioritize in training new skills or choosing replacement behaviors.The following identifies some important factors to consider in the selection.  One factor to consider is to try to select a skill that will lead to the long term goals of the client.  This often requires alot of imagination, observation and research to come up with some alternative goals with the client and his caregivers that will lead satisfying to a more satisfying lifestyle for the client.  Once these goals are established all other training should be in agreement with these long term objectives. A second factor to  consider is  the inappropriate behaviors and the caregiver or trainer should attempt to design acquisition skills that will most likely reduce those behaviors. This may be done by teaching skills that are difficult to do at the same time as the inappropriate behavior or skills that result in the same types of reinforcement.  Parents and trainers should always keep in mind that teaching skills that are not connected to the overall treatment plan goals to achieve will not lead the client as rapidly to acheiving the satisfying lifestyle the client and family want to achieve.