What is Preference Assessments

Preference assessments are assessments used to find potential reinforcers of a learner. These assessments are structured methods that are utilized to help find highly preferred items or actions, that can be used as reinforcers during therapy sessions to keep motivation levels high, when we are teaching clients. Although preference assessments will allow us to know what items or actions your child highly prefers, we don’t know if it is going to be a reinforcer until the item causes an increase in behavior in the future. There are multiple ways to conduct preference assessments. One way we often start out with is asking the parents or caretakers what the child highly prefers. We can also ask the learner themselves. Another way is known as  a free operant preference assessment. During this assessment, the child is free to interact and play with whatever they want. Therapists will take note of what the child appears to interact with the most. The next forms of preference assessments are called trial-based methods. These methods are done with more control by the therapist. Single Stimulus Preference Assessment is when a single item is given to the child and their reaction is noted. Paired Stimulus, or Forced Choice, is when we pair two different items together simultaneously over the course of a handful of trials. This will help us be able to rank items from high preference to low preference. The final two methods are called Multiple Stimulus with Replacement (MSWR) and Multiple Stimulus without Replacement (MSWOR). With MSWR, multiple items are presented to the learner and whichever item is picked remains, while all the other items are replaced with new items. The therapist will take note of which ones are selected during each trial and rank them at the end of the assessment. MSWOR is very similar to MSWR except the item chosen by the learner is removed from the array and as the child picks items they are not replaced and the number of items that were put out diminishes in size. Items are ranked based on what was selected first, second, etc.