Which counseling strategy encourages students by using tokens as rewards?

The token economy is a behavioral strategy widely used in educational and therapeutic settings to reinforce positive behaviors by providing tangible rewards. In this approach, individuals, such as students, earn tokens for exhibiting desired behaviors or completing specific tasks. These tokens can later be exchanged for various rewards or privileges, effectively motivating the individuals to engage in appropriate behaviors consistently.

This system is grounded in the principles of operant conditioning, where positive reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. It can be particularly effective for children and adolescents, as the instant gratification of earning tokens can help shape their behavior over time.

While behavioral interventions and class-wide reinforcement strategies also utilize concepts of rewards and reinforcement, they do not specifically focus on a tangible token system, which is the hallmark of a token economy. Reality therapy, on the other hand, emphasizes personal responsibility and making choices rather than using tangible rewards to influence behavior. Therefore, token economy is the most precise and appropriate term for this counseling strategy that uses tokens as rewards.