A parent-administered program to reduce children's television viewing.

Five families with 6- to young learners kids took part. Parents ran a token economy at home. Kids earned points when TV time stayed under a daily limit. Points bought weekend outings or small toys. The design was multiple baseline across kids. No clinic visits were needed.

TV time dropped by more than half for every child. Gains held at six months and again at one year. Reading minutes went up for all five kids. Homework time rose for three and stayed flat for two. Parents said the plan was easy to run.

Lydersen et al. (1974) showed the same token logic in classrooms. When reading earned tokens, disruption vanished and work doubled. Baer et al. (1984) moves that idea into living rooms with parents in charge.

Smith et al. (2010) seems to disagree. They simply took TV sets out of adults' bedrooms and still cut viewing by two hours. No tokens, no points. The gap is age and tool: kids need active rewards, adults respond to environmental tweaks.

Petursdottir et al. (2019) used the same multiple-baseline design in schools. Tokens first, then fading. Disruption fell a large share. The 1984 study never faded; parents kept the system all year. Both show strong effects but leave the fading question open.

You can hand this program to parents tomorrow. Give them a kitchen timer, a jar of poker chips, and a prize menu. In one meeting you can set the daily TV limit and point values. No data sheets, no clinic follow-up. The study says gains last a full year, so check-in calls can be brief. If the child also needs reading fluency, you get that bonus for free.