“What do I use for reinforcers?”
“How do we motivate students to exercise?”
If you’ve been wondering about these, or need some new ideas for increasing motivation, this Autism Fitness blog post is for you.
Of course, all of our ASD/ND athletes vary, and sometimes reinforcer strategies will need more time, thought, and attention. There’s not just one way to add in secondary reinforcers. The most important considerations revolve around what works for the athlete(s), what maintains the greatest amount of productivity during the session, and what can be implemented in the most natural/appropriate way.
Having worked with hundreds of children, teens, and adults with autism/ND over my 20+ year career, I can say that getting full-on elaborate with reinforcement strategies is seldom the necessity some people assume it will be. We can break reinforcement strategies into three different categories.
General: Offering choice (between exercises and exercise order), providing behavior-specific praise (BSP), and being consistent with programming and language is the foundation of supporting our ASD/ND athletes.
Choice of exercises works best with two, at most three exercises. In Autism Fitness programming we use three phases of exercise in a session; mobility, power, and strength. Prior to starting any phase, we can ask the athlete which of the 2-3 exercises they want to do first.
“You’ve got hurdle steps and walking band pulls. Which one do you want to do first?”
Depending on that particular athlete’s communicative ability, they may give a verbal response, point to the exercise/equipment, or, as many of my current and former athletes have done, just start doing the preferred exercise.
Behavior-specific praise is a general (though specific) practice that serves a multitude of beneficial functions, not just relegated to the autism and neurodivergent populations either. What we want to emphasize is the exact thing(s) the athlete is doing correctly. Instead of “great job,” we say “Great job stepping over the hurdle and keeping your knee up.” Clearly the latter statement is much more descriptive. It serves not only as a reinforcer for many individuals, but as a coaching strategy. It also prevents overcoaching.
Consistency, which broad categorically and strategically, can function as a reinforcer by reducing anxiety around uncertainty. As the ASD athlete becomes accustomed to the environment, exercises, coaching, and terminology, they are likely to gain a sense of competence and accomplishment. These can be significant natural reinforcers and while they make take a few sessions to develop, can be as or more powerful than many secondary/additional reinforcers (screen time, looking at you).
Individualized: Incorporating an athlete’s interests into the session builds positive regard and sustains interest. Especially for those autism athletes who are “eh” or “not my favorite” about exercise, “grafting” what they do like and are interested in pairs exercise with something already preferred.
Creating an exercise “adventure” using an athlete’s favorite video game or YouTube characters can increase engagement and interest. Over time and with consistent pairing, we may be able to fade more robust/elaborate setups. Social stories (whether one page or several) can be great ways to provide visual representations of both the character/adventure and exercise options.
When individualizing a reinforcer, it is important to keep it at the interest level of the athlete. For example, creating an entire exercise adventure (as described above), may hold the interest of some autistic exercise participants, whereas just having access to a picture (or short video) of the character/show may work just as well (or better) for others.
Communicate effectively. Some athletes are “close talkers” some need more space. Tone of voice, facial expression, and other “non verbal” forms of connecting and showing care, empathy, and patience are the “small but BIG” category.
Effective communication during fitness and adapted PE programs for the autism and neurodivergent population is a combination of meeting the athlete’s processing abilities (remember that non- or limited verbal/expressive language does not mean the athlete cannot understand) and using coaching/cueing that emphasizes the performance of the exercise.
One of the most important aspects of effective communication we teach in the Autism Fitness Certification is limiting “explaining” the exercise, in favor of a strategy we call “Label/Demo/Do & Cue,” which works wonders.
You get these important and successful coaching strategies in the Autism Fitness Certification program.