Effects of tangible and social reinforcers on skill acquisition, stereotyped behavior, and task engagement in three children with autism spectrum disorders.

The team ran discrete-trial lessons with three autistic children. Each child got the same lessons twice: once with edible or toy rewards, once with praise, high-fives, and claps. The order flipped each day so no type had an edge.

They tracked how fast each child learned the new skill, how much stereotypy happened, and how often the child stayed on task.

Both reward types taught the skill at the same speed. Tangibles, however, sparked more hand-flapping and body rocking. Social praise kept stereotypy low while learning stayed high.

Task engagement stayed strong under both conditions, so praise did not cost attention.

Wing (1981) rotated edibles and toys within sessions and also saw steady correct responding. Soyeon et al. now show that switching to praise alone can keep those gains and drop stereotypy.

Yanchik et al. (2024) later asked whether toddlers need DTT at all; they found mixing naturalistic play with DTT gives bigger adaptive gains. Soyeon’s result says if you do run table work, use praise to avoid extra stereotypy.

Dell’Aringa et al. (2021) tweaked transfer trials and found no speed boost. Likewise, Soyeon shows the reward form does not speed learning either; the win is cleaner behavior, not faster mastery.

You can keep your teaching pace while cutting toy or food side-effects. Start each program with a quick reinforcer test; if praise works, stay there. If not, fade toys or edibles fast and pair them with social cues so stereotypy stays low. Your data stay flat, but the child looks and feels calmer—an easy Monday swap.