The goal of the “relinquishing preferred items” program is to teach individuals to disconnect from preferred items. This program starts with “trade you” – Therapist trades one preferred item for another preferred item. Then, we systematically fade out the trading and increase the time that the student has to give up the preferred item. This protocol only goes up to 1 minute, but you can systematically increase the desired time away from the activity.

Another strategy that is not written on the protocol (but that could be incorporated) is to show on a visual schedule or first/then board WHEN the student can have the item back.

The “Relinquishing reinforcement – tolerates no” data sheet could be used instead to give up a preferred activity. We also use it to teach students to tolerate no. This is based on Hanley’s SBT approach and builds in functional communication training as the first step.

“Desensitization to not getting my way” is another version of teaching the student to tolerate no or not right now.