Using token reinforcement to increase walking for adults with intellectual disabilities

Five adults with intellectual disability walked around a 50-meter indoor track.

Staff gave each walker one plastic token for every lap.

Tokens could buy snacks, drinks, or small items the walkers picked the day before.

The study used an ABAB design: tokens on, tokens off, tokens on again.

When tokens were available, four people tripled their daily laps.

The fifth person doubled his laps.

Walking dropped back to low levels when tokens stopped.

It shot up again as soon as tokens returned.

Allison (1976) got the same big jump in classroom work using tokens with kids.

Together the two studies show tokens work across ages and settings.

Bonfonte et al. (2020) found high-preference snacks beat brand-new tokens in a lab test.

That sounds like a clash, but Krentz used items walkers already loved, so the tokens were backed by strong reinforcers.

Skrtic et al. (1982) saw no loss when they removed tokens from a stuttering program.

Their task was already fluent; walking is new behavior, so tokens still matter.

You can boost daily exercise for adults with ID in one afternoon.

Let the client choose backup items, pay one token per lap, and watch steps soar.

No fancy tech needed—just chips, drinks, and a pocket of plastic tokens.