By Barbara Kessler, TJJD Communications —
We all need a little incentive to get going on some days. As adults we may set up rewards or incentives to motivate ourselves to finish that report, push harder at the gym, clean the house or smile through a pesky social engagement.
Sometimes our friends and family boost our motivation. TJJD’s new Treatment Director Sarah Hogan says that when she’s at a competitive run on her days off she gets a lift from people cheering on the sidelines.
At TJJD, the staff fill that cheerleading role, encouraging the youth when they make progress in their treatment, education and other goals.
JCOs, case managers and others are trained to notice and offer praise when they see TJJD youth taking positive steps, big or small.
This can require keen observation, which is why building healthy connections is a foundational part of the Texas Model. Staff need to really know and understand the youths in their care to catch their negative behavior before it escalates, but also to catch them “being good.” The signs can be subtle. A youth who was easily agitated when he first arrived and has suddenly gone quiet can be a puzzle. But an attentive staffer can see this youth helping a peer with a problem or using the pacing he learned in DBT to calm down after a challenging moment in class. When the staff member recognizes this progress, it can resonate deeply with the youth.
As almost all counselors and psychologists and even parents know, positive reinforcement works. It can shape behavior. That’s why TJJD staff strive to offer “four instances of positive reinforcement to every one correction,” says Hogan.
Now TJJD staff have another tool to reinforce positive behavior. It’s called the “Token Economy” and it’s being rolled out as a pilot project this summer across three campuses. The plan calls for extending the program to all campuses in fall 2025.
How the Token Economy Works at TJJD
Token economies have been used in many therapeutic settings. The idea is to provide clients, or in this case, the youth at TJJD, with what psychologists would call “secondary motivators.”
Unlike primary motivators such as hunger and danger-avoidance which involve survival, secondary motivators are more like the icing on the cake. They’re all about social approval or status. Think: money, social status, diplomas and other earned accoutrements.
Don’t let the term “secondary,” fool you. These are powerful motivators.
Here’s how it is working at the TJJD pilot:
Staff award tokens (actually a stamp in a notebook) to reward youths for positive behaviors related to the skills they’re working on. The JCOs and case workers watch for when a youth has successfully used a DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) skill that is part of their Integrated Treatment Plan. (In ITPs, youth chose to learn and practice DBT skills that address their particular needs.)
For example, a staffer might notice that a young person has negotiated a difficult interaction by using the DBT Skill Dear Man and articulating their needs.
The youth gets a token and can use that to “buy” a small treat, like candy bar, or they can save up their tokens for larger rewards in the campus store, such as books, puzzles or basketballs.
The staff are already seeing the lights go on with the youth, who are talking about earning Pokémon cards or headphones as they win rewards for building their behavioral skills.
Through repetition and rewards, more carrots than sticks, the program is motivating youths to practice their DBT skills and set new patterns.
“It gives them something to look forward to and they’ll start to look for opportunities to earn a token,” Hogan said. “This is really in line with shaping behavior and taking steps in the right direction toward a goal.”
By contrast, when youths are corrected “that removes the behavior, but it doesn’t actually encourage new behavior,” she explained. “With the token economy this encourages new behavior.”
“We do see this as a final step in the Texas Model, providing the opportunity to encourage and reinforce our youth who are engaging in positive and skillful behavior, Hogan said. “We will see longer-lasting outcomes and changes in behaviors, individually and even collectively.”