Reinforcement vs. Breaks - Part 1
REINFORCEMENT VS. BREAKS - PART 1 BREAKS Over time, I've heard well-meaning special educators confuse reinforcement with scheduled breaks with leisure breaks with heavy work breaks, with language used interchangeably. In my opinion, they aren't the same. Students don't EARN breaks. An effective special educator wouldn't take a break away from a student as a consequence. My hope is to explain how they are different so that special educators can then communicate clear expectations to students. Behavior modification will not happen if students don't understand expectations. Worse yet, students often don't trust adults who are not consistent in enforcing expectations. A caveat here is that these strategies are most easily implemented in an elementary or middle/high self-contained setting. It is possible for them to happen in resource with older students, but requires more coordination with school staff. Another caveat is the adult support required - like we have e...