The purpose of this study was to examine self-reinforcement as an agent of behavior change with children who were deficient in desired attention behaviors. Twenty three first and second grade school children were taught through external reinforcement procedures to raise their level of attention on a simple discrimination task. Subjects in one group were then taught to manage their own reinforcement contingencies and their performance was compared with that of a group continued on external reinforcement and a group for which reinforcement was discontinued. Results showed that groups receiving reinforcement performed at higher levels than the no reinforcement group. Self-reinforcement maintained discrimination behavior at as high a level as external reinforcement with no decrement in discrimination accuracy. Some greater initial resistance to extinction was evidenced in the self-reinforcement group as compared to the other groups. No differences in generalization of attentive behavior were found. (Author)