DOs and DON'Ts of Using Fines or Response Cost to Reduce Challenging Behavior

As I said in the last post, it's important to use your FBA to determine what kind of consequence is going to be effective. One kind of consequence we often use when we have a reinforcement system, like a token system, in place is response cost. Response cost is when we remove a reinforcer or an opportunity for a reinforcer from the student in response to a challenging behavior. It can be used in many different ways, but probably the most common is when the student is earning tokens in a token system and we remove them when we observe the behavior we are trying to decrease. In our society we are prone to take things away as a punishment for misbehavior, which makes many people think that response cost is a natural to include in the use of a reinforcement system (i.e., you earn when you're good, you lose when you're not). However, response cost often can come back and bite you if you aren't careful. So, I thought I would take some time to discuss some DOs and Don'ts about using response cost with students. These are relevant to any population from typical individuals to those with behavior disorders and of course those with ASD.
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