Out with the rules, in with the tag points!

Rules list

By Gwen Hunter

I recently convinced staff at a new program for families with children who present with a gamut of behavioral challenges (ADHD, OD, autism spectrum, etc.) to try TAGteach. After a few telephone conversations they invited me to come and observe their most challenging class of 6 kids. Wow, it was chaotic and, frankly, dangerous. The following week I met with staff after school for a couple of hours, passed out info on TAGteach. They were excited. This class was the following day so I asked them to make a list of the behaviors they didn’t like below each student’s name. Then we went over each item, added an = sign next to each, and came up with behaviors they’d like instead (What a helpful tool this is! Thanks for teaching it.) These became tag points. I gave them taggers and we decided on tictacs for primary reinforcers. They then split up the kids so that each of us would have two to tag. I was really nervous about this as in the past I’d only tagged when working one-on-one with a student plus I didn’t know these kids, but we decided to approach this as a learning experience – which it certainly was!

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