Reward Effort, Not Compliance: Autism Sticker Chart Alternative
3 min read
Map Your Day
Choosing What Earns Points and what should stay free.
You added points to everything on the map because it seemed generous, and now your child has a price list for the entire day and no reason to do anything without one.
Free 7-day trial · No email or credit card to start · Built by an autism dad and a licensed SLP
Why it works here
Why a day map helps with choosing what earns points
Points are a limited resource in a specific sense: the more activities carry them, the less each one means, and the more of your child's day becomes transactional. Choosing deliberately which two or three activities need them keeps the currency valuable and the rest of the day intact.
You will recognize this if
- Nearly every step on your map has a reward attached.
- Your child asks what they get for ordinary requests.
- Points no longer seem to influence behavior much.
What the research saysA meta-analysis of 128 experiments found that expected tangible rewards contingent on completing a task reduced intrinsic motivation for that task, an effect that argues for narrow rather than broad use.
Deci, Koestner and Ryan, Psychological Bulletin, 1999
The setup
How to set it up for choosing what earns points
Takes about five minutes. Use it as written, or keep only the steps your family needs. A short setup that gets used beats a complete one that gets abandoned in week two.
- 1 Sort your activities into already willing, sometimes willing, and never willing
- 2 Put points only on the last group
- 3 Cap the number of point-earning activities at three
- 4 Attach points to starting where initiation is the barrier
- 5 Leave anything your child enjoys completely unrewarded
- 6 Rotate which activities carry points as needs change
The mistake most families make
Rewarding everything devalues the reward and converts willing behavior into paid behavior, which is a trade most families would not make deliberately.
In the app
Built into the routine, not bolted onto it.
The Map Your Day lives inside the same routine your child already follows, so choosing what earns points is a step with a visible length rather than a separate tool somebody has to remember to open.
- Attach it to any step in any routine
- Works for pre-readers, gestalt language processors, and AAC users
- Same setup at home, at school, and in therapy
Set this up for your child.
Five minutes to build, and your child sees it every time choosing what earns points comes around.
$6.99/month after the free trial · Cancel anytime · Also at app.vizyplan.com
Common questions
About choosing what earns points
How many activities should earn points?
Two or three at a time. More than that and the system becomes a wage rather than a nudge.
Should hygiene and chores earn points?
Only if your child currently refuses them. Something already happening does not need paying for, and paying for it tends to stop it happening for free.
What about effort versus completion?
Rewarding starting and effort holds up better than rewarding outcomes, particularly for activities where your child's capacity varies day to day.
VizyPlan supports routines and communication at home and school. It is not a medical device and does not diagnose or treat any condition. Talk to your child's care team about clinical questions.
