User blog comment:Selena ariel/Wiki Pages for Adapting HabitRPG for ADHD?/@comment-25983229-20150123001500/@comment-25983229-20150123012814

Sure! When I work with kids, I try to use Positive Behavior Supports. HabitRPG's Dailies and To-Dos are perfect because they reward behaviors that DO occur, instead of punishing behaviors that don't. When you're working with a REALLY challenging behavior, you can break into Habits.

Gold and gems are positive reinforcements, meaning things that are presented to a person to encourage a a behavior. With checklists and as many tasks as you'd like you can break down any process into several steps, and be able to reinforce each separate action or give partial credit with checklists.

Negative punishment (which isn't so scary, I promise), is when you take something away from a person to make a behavior go away. That's a Habit. It's really great though because you're not taking something incredibly real away, but you are definitely helping them see that there's a consequence for their behavior. Having to click the minus sign on a Habit is hard even for me as an adult, but it builds a real accountability.

Something as simple as family chores can work, with siblings getting assigned chores on different days. Classes or teams in a class can work towards a group reward by going on quests.

The flexibility of what to make a reward is awesome too. You can have a "Donate to  . . . " reward that lets students bank their gold towards a group (family or class) effort. (I'm huge on group rewards - they take some of the sting away from individual mistakes and can build in community support if done the right way). Tying the gold to different things of different value with staggered prices is really effective, too. It helps to see the incremental gains towards a big item, but knowing you have the option to get "five extra minutes of . . . " is super rewarding too.

Before the day is through, they can go to the data display tool and see what damage they'd get if they left something for tomorrow. It'd really require them to weigh the cost, or realize there might still be drops left they should try to get.

Do I have to mention that kids love badges? They are natural collectors, too. Um, I want the Bingo Triad.

When I make behavioral support plans for families, I mention this site. I even can set it up for them and it's particular to their families' needs. They can access it anywhere, and on a lot of different devices, and the data doesn't have to "live" somewhere where it can get lost or forgotten - have you ever NOT given a child who was owed a sticker said sticker?

So yeah, I love this idea. =)