What is a preference assessment?

A lot of times when I go into classrooms, I see that the reinforcer for every child in the classroom is an iPad. So can you describe what a preference assessment is and how often those preference assessments should be done? Well, yeah, so that poses two issues, right? So one is one of the issues is that, especially in this time of COVID and things changing, I think it's really hard to make if you work with an individual that has very few reinforcers and limited skills in terms of waiting. And so forth, I think is a really, I think it's really problematic because they're only reinforcer right. Because they may be expected to work on that iPad. So we're seeing that now in terms of because they're getting home instruction. Well, why do you have to work on the computer. Now, when this is always a fun time for me? Right This is always my reinforcer. And there's a powerful reinforcement for a lot of kids. So parents assessment is a way to identify potentially powerful reinforcers, but also to maybe expose kids to other stimuli. They may find reinforcing. And that's really important. Again, constantly. The only thing that you do is work when I work iPad, work iPad, when it's time to do some instructional technology on the iPad, there's no doubt it's a really it's a big switch for them. It's like, wait a minute, I had total control of this. And now you're saying, I only know the game is underneath this other app. I have to touch the draw for me to work. So it becomes very problematic. So preference assessments are a collection of strategies that, are procedures that are used to determine what might be powerful preferences and hopefully will serve as a reinforcer. We don't really know if it's going to be a reinforcer until we try and see if it works for the children facilitates or responding to instruction. But there's a couple of different ways to do it. One, there is record free offering assessment. So we can put some things in the environment. We can kind of watch and see what a child engages in. That's probably the easiest way because you're never removing any stimuli. You're just kind of feel their natural environment. That's one way. And then there's a whole series of can ask folks, you can ask individuals if they've got a communication repertoire, what do you want to work for? What do you like? Those sometimes are affected, too, though sometimes you may ask is, what they like, but they won't serve as a reinforcer. So if I was to ask you, what do you like? You like chocolate? You said yes, I'll say welcome to my lawn for a chocolate bar and say, no way. So again, you want to make sure they're powerful enough reinforcers that kids will be able to engage in academic past for. There are other types for them. So you might. So after you have a free offering assessment, there's a whole series of other procedures. There's phishers, parents are forced choice or paired assessment. There is multiple stimulus without replacement, which is balian and I wata, which is probably the easiest. So Ah, for some kids, if kids can make some choices to put a couple of items out in front of a child, they take one. You say take one, they take one. Right you scored. That was their first selection kind of rearrangement. Present them again. But you present the first one. Right, and then they select the second one. They should go through that a couple of times. You're able to establish what is the highest preferred item. And what is the least preferred item. What's nice is sometimes you can bring new things in the mix. You don't really have to use reinforcers that you think that you've seen them engage with the poor. Maybe they've never seen the school silly string thing or the school game. A lot of our kids with developmental disabilities have had less access to other things than their peers, so they may not even know that's a reinforcer. So sometimes it's really nice presenting some stimuli for the sample and then doing a preference assessment. So that's really what they are. So your other question was, how often should you do it? So it's sometime between not at the beginning of the year. One time to the there we sent a note from the parents, what did your kid like to work for? You know, and then every five minutes, some kids, it's going to depend on the individual. Some kids have some pretty stable reinforcers over time. And so you may conduct it once a week. Remember, this procedure is going to take you like three or four minutes. So that's it. Some kids, it may change, right? They may change their reinforcers throughout the day. So you may make it a part of your structure. Set out the child. You do a quick preference assessment. It's been like one or two minutes, maybe just a couple of trials. Lay them all out. What do you want to work for? And then you work for that. But it really depends on the individual. What will tell you how often to do it is your talent, the individual responding. So if you, for instance, see the make a little bit of progress, they drop right down here. That's a reinforcer issue. Right? and so you're like, oh, maybe I'm not using powerful reinforcers. And so you need to assess more often. So there isn't a this is the way that you must do it because, you know, best case in the best world, you do preference assessments a lot all the multiple times a day. But I understand as teachers. Right you've got a million other things that you have to do. So it's going to be. So my recommendation would to be at least once a week and. Some kids may require more often.