Assignment task: Julie is a 5 year old, typically developing little girl who lives at home with her parents and her 7 year old brother, Noah. The routine at home is that the children play in the playroom until dinner and a sweet treat, then watch a show or play a game with their mother, and then bedtime routine including booktime. Julie and Noah are notorious mess makers in their playroom. Everyday, before dinner, their mother asked them to clean the playroom but each day the children never finish cleaning. Julie and Noah fight over who gets to clean up which toy (e.g., "No, I played with that toy" or "I'm not doing it because I didn't play with it"). This goes on until their mother enters the playroom and yells at them to clean up and she often gives up and cleans the room for them. Julie never likes what the mother has cooked for dinner and frequently "changes her mind" about what she likes and does not like. Noah refuses to put on his pajamas and brush his teeth and instead whines for more TV time. The mother's friend told her about the Premack Principle and shared that it worked really well for her own children and she would like to try it with Julie and Noah.
Describe to the mother what the Premack Principle is and how it works and which behaviors that the children engage that may benefit from using the Premack Principle. Identify reinforcer(s) that the children may be able to earn and talk about how you know that those are potential reinforcers. Describe the kind of language and/or visual prompts that the mother should use when explaining this to the children.