Knocking Out Schoolwork during the Stay-at-Home Order
Disclaimer: If you are a home-schooling parent…please skip this post...or provide your life hacks in the comment section!
For the rest of the parents out there, perhaps one of the most noticeable changes from COVID-19 has been that you are now wearing ANOTHER hat - Teacher.
We've made it clear that you don't have to be a Super Parent...but you can be a Skilled Parent.
Here is one skill for the road...drum roll please...the Token Economy!
What is a Token Economy?
At its most basic, a token economy is a system that says:
If you do X, you get Y.
If you don't do X, you don't get Y.
How Does a Token Economy Work?
A token economy works like Chuck-e-Cheese:
If you rack up a certain number of tickets, you can cash those tickets in for that prize you really want.
Except, when parents use a token economy, kids don't earn tickets by playing Whack-a-Mole. They earn tokens (chips or points in a ledger book) by doing the boring stuff - chores, jobs, schoolwork, etc.
In a token economy, there are a limited number of tasks. Kids earn a certain amount of tokens for each task. With their tokens, they can purchase privileges that are agreed upon ahead of time. If they don't carry out their assigned tasks - no tokens...and therefore...no earned privileges.
Why Does a Token Economy Work?
Think of the best boss you’ve had. Chances are, one of the reasons this person sticks out, in a positive way, is that they were good at affirming you when you did what was expected. Chances are, when you received praise from this boss, you continued to work to meet their expectation.
That is what behavioral psychologists call positive reinforcement.
Positive doesn't mean “warm and fuzzy” - it means something is applied.
Reinforcement means to get more of the same behavior.
So positive reinforcement means when you apply something to get more of the same behavior.
Kids do great with positive reinforcement! They soak up the attention, they love earning privileges, and perhaps most importantly - positive reinforcement allows them to learn what is expected of them and to learn from the positive consequences that come from following through.
Three Steps to Start a Token Economy
Token economies work great for motivating kids to knock out challenging...and sometimes tedious...tasks like schoolwork. Tokens can easily be earned for effort demonstrated, or for assignments completed.
Here are three steps to start a token economy:
1. Sit down as a family and determine three expectations you have of your child. Agree on the privileges your child could earn for meeting those expectations.
2. Assign a number of tokens to each expectation and to each privilege. Break the day into three segments: breakfast to lunch, lunch to dinner, and dinner to bedtime. Set an alarm on your phone to remind you to monitor the expectations established at least once per time period. When you see your child meeting your expectation, verbally praise them: "Thank you! You are earning X tokens for doing Y."
3. Set a regular time during the day (i.e., after afternoon snack) that your child can cash in their tokens for privileges. Keep track of their tokens like you are a banker, and repeat each day.
This is a streamlined explanation of a token economy - there are other details to consider, especially about formatting the system to family lifestyle. Sometimes, designing and implementing a token economy is part of what parents do when they come with their child for counseling.
A wonderful resource to better understand token economies, especially with children who are demonstrating disruptive behavior is Your Defiant Child by Russell Barkley.
If you made it this far in the post…you’ve earned three tokens!
Next in our Skilled Parent series…managing screen time!