First then boards (or if we really want to get fancy, this is called the Premack principle) are a great visual resource to use for students as well as kids at home to help break up their day into smaller, manageable chunks. This strategy is also great for helping children to complete a non-preferred task! Simply place a visual of what you want them to do in the “first” box and then place a visual for the reinforcing reward in the “then” box.
Don’t have a lot of visuals to use at your disposal? No problem! You can just use a tray and place a clip art picture of a heart (or any shape you prefer) on the tray. Use this tray to place the non-preferred task on. Then just put the same heart or shape you used for the tray onto the “first” box. It makes it super easy because you don’t have to keep switching out visuals, except for the reinforcing visual you use for the “then” box. When you want your child to complete different tasks, simply switch out the activities on the trays!
Examples of reinforcers can be time on the ipad, toy cars, squishy toys, jumping on the trampoline, a slinky, putty, play dough, a certain snack, etc. Really anything that your child is interested and motivated by can be used as your reinforcer.
We use these at home with our boys for things like: eating their dinner (first dinner, then dessert), cleaning up their toys (first pick up legos, then ipad), and getting ready in the morning (first get dressed, then legos). It truly is a simple strategy that can be tailored to your child’s needs. I also love that the visuals are reinforcing the language that your child will be hearing and processing. Remember the tip on my Instagram story yesterday about time delay? So many times, in my experience, refusal is about more than just a child deciding that they don’t want to do something. There is always a function to a behavior – but…more about that another day.
Click here to get your free copy of a First Then mat to use with your kiddos!
Thanks for stopping by and reading! I would hear about how you are using this resource in your homes or classrooms and how it is going!
Stay healhty!
The Purposeful Classroom 