Incentives for Change: Motivating People with Autism Spectrum Disorders to Learn and Gain Independence

People with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can be difficult to motivate, especially when asked to learn something new. Finding the right incentives to support learning is one of the crucial first steps in teaching them new skills. Written by two autism specialists with nearly 50 years combined experience, the book explores systems for determining what incentives children and adults with ASD will find rewarding, and ways to use motivation as a tool to affect their learning and behaviour.

This easy-to-follow guide explains a variety of motivational methods and systems for teaching a wide variety of social skills, such as interacting playfully with others and making eye contact, and life skills such as getting dressed and doing chores. These techniques can also help students with ASD learn academic subjects in school and control interfering behaviours like hand flapping or rocking back and forth.