How the Token Economy Works with Children who Have Disabilities

There are many systems in the educational field that will help to improve the behaviors of children and children with disabilities. There are many forms of disabilities. The Federal Special Education Law classifies the disabilities into thirteen categories. They are as follows: Learning Disability or LD, Speech or language Impairment, Mental Retardation or MR, Emotional Disturbance or ED, Autism, Hearing Impairment, Visual Impairment, Deaf-Blindness, Orthopedic Impairment or OI, Traumatic Brain Injury or TBI, Other Health Impairment examples include, cancer, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS, and sickle cell anemia. One of the behavior modification techniques is the token economy. The token economy can help improve the interaction of children with disabilities in the general educational setting. This means that children with disabilities will be integrated into a classroom with children without disabilities. Interaction includes, but is not limited to, participating in the classroom, following directions and the guidelines of the classroom, and being polite and courteous to the teacher and the other students

A token economy is a reward system that helps to modify the behavior of individuals that can be put into place in many instances including hospitals, educational setting, and prisons. The token economy can be very versatile. Different schools have different educational policies. For the most part students with low to moderate disabilities will be integrated into a general educational classroom; however, they may leave the classroom at certain time of the day to receive additional tutoring and therapy. In some cases an assistant or therapist will come into the classroom to work with the student. For students with severe disabilities they may need more time out of the classroom especially if they become easily fatigued due to physical disabilities. Another example would be a student with autism. If they become overwhelmed they many need a quiet place where they can decompress from over stimulation of the classroom.