Motivation is the interest or desire to engage in some activity. We need to be motivated to play, work, study, and complete our daily activities. Motivation is necessary for our routine func-toning as well as to learn anything. Children with Autism are not motivated to engage in any appropriate behavior. Instead they have several behavior issues that take away their motivation from most activities that are helpful for functioning.
As parents, it is crucial to understand that the child will have difficulties learning tasks that he or she is not motivated to learn. The easiest fix is to find activities that interest the child.
Use these activities to teach. For the activities that are not interesting, find ways to make that activity interesting. There are several ways to make an activity interesting so that the child is motivated to engage in that activity.
Ways to increase motivation:
-Try to teach when the child is in a good mood.
-Start with activities that he likes. Once he is attending, try to teach the more difficult activities.
-Be involved with the child through-out that activity. Interact with the child constantly while he is engaged in that task.
-Combine that activity with some other activity that is fun for the child.
-Add external rewards that the child gets if he completes a non-preferred activity. Let the child pick what he or she wants to earn for engaging in non-preferred activities.
-Make the child engage in the non-preferred activity after which he or she gets access to a preferred activity. E.g., use “If-Then cards.”

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