Transcript Teaching Students with Autism

Teaching Students with Autism
Discrete Trial Training & Naturalistic
Teaching Strategies
Teaching Students w/Autism
• What is Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)?
• What are some things you might see in a
classroom where the principles of ABA are
being used?
Teaching Students w/Autism
• “Applied Behavior Analysis is the process of
systematically applying interventions based
upon the principles of learning theory to
improve socially significant behaviors to a
meaningful degree, and to demonstrate that
the interventions employed are responsible for
the improvement in behavior.”
Baer, Wolf & Risley, 1968
Teaching Students w/Autism
• The 11 Established Treatments for ASD listed by The
National Standards Project are:
- Antecedent Package
- Behavioral Package
- Comprehensive Behavioral Treatment for Young Children
- Joint Attention Intervention
- Modeling
- Naturalistic Teaching Strategies
- Peer Training Package
- Pivotal Response Treatment
- Schedules
-Self-management
-Story-based Intervention Package
Teaching Students w/Autism
• All of these established treatments have at
least some basis in the behavioral literature
and/or make use of strategies described in the
behavioral literature
• They all employ the following:
- Use of positive reinforcement (R+)
- Individualized instruction
-Data based decision making
Teaching Students w/Autism
• What is Discrete Trial Training (DTT)?
• Are DTI and ABA the same thing?
Teaching Students w/Autism
• Discrete Trial Training (DTT) is a method of
teaching in simplified steps. Instead of teaching
an entire skill in one go, the skill is broken down
and “built-up” using discrete trials that teach
each step one at a time (Smith, 2001).
• Discrete Trial Training is commonly used within
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) but it is
important to note that ABA is not Discrete Trial
Training. ABA uses DTT as one method of
teaching but there are many other methods used
within ABA as well.
Teaching Students with Autism
• Using what we have discussed so far, practice
explaining ABA and Discrete Trial Training as if
you were talking to a parent.
Discrete Trial Training
• Pioneered by the work of Dr. Ivar Lovass at UCLA.
• Discrete trials contain 3 distinct parts:
– An antecedent which is a clear, simple instruction provided
to the student
– A specific behavior that we expect the student to perform
in response to our instruction
– A consequence; either positive reinforcement for correct
responses or a correction for incorrect responses.
• Still one of the most researched and relied upon methods
for teaching students with autism.
Discrete Trial Training
• So why is “discrete trial” a “bad word” in so
many schools?
Discrete Trial Training
• There are several common criticisms of DTT:
- “It’s boring”
- “It doesn’t teach language”
- “It turns kids into robots”
- “It doesn’t look natural”
Discrete Trial Training
• Many of these criticisms are based off of
historical aspects of DTT which are no longer
used today
– “SD voice”
– “Mass trialing”
– “No, No, Prompt”
– “Intertrial Pause”
– “Trial by Trial Data Collection”
Discrete Trial Training
• In the last 10 years, the application of the
theory of verbal behavior has significantly
changed the way DTT is applied to children on
the spectrum.
• The verbal behavior approach uses a
combination of DTT and Natural Environment
Teaching (NET) to address the needs of
students with autism.
Teaching Students w/Autism
• So what are some of the changes that have
been made to DTT?
• How do we use a combination of DTT and NET
in the classroom?
DTT: Pairing
• Pairing is the process of building cooperation and
rapport by providing the student with access to their
preferred items and activities.
• Differs from historical DTT in that the instructor
becomes associated with the students preferences
rather than with the termination of preferred
activities and a high number of demands.
• Demands are introduced slowly and are at first very
simple and short.
DTT: Pairing
• Ideas for pairing in the classroon
– Become aware of each student’s individual
preferences by either asking them or performing
a preference assessment
– Approach students during “downtime” and
provide access to favorite items and activities
without placing demands
– Approach during a students favorite activities and
enhance the experience
DTT: Pairing
• Preference assessment demonstration and
practice
– MSWO for higher functioning students
– Forced choice for lower functioning students
– Remember that motivation shifts constantly
DTT: Task Interspersal
• Task interspersal means quickly shifting from one
type of trial to another rather than presenting
multiple trials of the same task in a row.
• Intersperse several maintenance tasks to help avoid
challenging behaviors and to build behavioral
momentum
• Intersperse trials with different verbal operants to
ensure that students are building listener
discrimination skills
DTT: Task Interspersal
• Using task interspersal in the classroom
DEMONSTRATION
o Individual
o Group
DTT: Pacing
• Present trials quickly to increase student
engagement and reduce self-stimulatory
behavior
• Be sure, however, to keep your instructions
clear.
• Choose a data collection system that will allow
you to teach at a quick pace
DTT: Data Collection
• Shift to greater use of probe data to allow for more natural
and faster teaching
• First trial probe – a test is done on the first presentation of the
task. If correct, no need to teach further. If prompting is
required this skill is targeted for teaching that day. Graphed
as a percentage either 0 or 100.
• Weekly probe – skills are taught every day, except for on
testing day. On testing day, a few skills are presented without
feedback and the percentage of correct responses for each
specific skill are graphed
DTT: Data Collection
• Collecting probe data in the classroom
DEMONSTRATION
o First trial probe
o Weekly probe
DTT: Data Collection
• Especially helpful for collecting data on skills
that would be “ridiculous” to present over and
over again i.e. play skills, socialization skills
• Teacher preference and experience are, of
course, still taken into consideration.
Natural Environment Teaching
• Natural Environment Teaching uses the
following strategies:
– Focusing on the child’s immediate interests and
activities as a guide for instructions
– Loose structure
– Done in the typical environment
– Stresses variation in materials and responses
– Still has specific consequences (R+ or correction)
Natural Environment Teaching
• Always use NET when teaching:
– Mand skills (requesting)
– Intraverbals (conversation skills)
– Play skills (in preschool)
– Socialization skills
– And always generalize skills taught in discrete trial
by using natural environment teaching strategies
Natural Environment Teaching
• Using NET in the classroom
DEMONSTRATION
o Using NET to promote generalization
Natural Environment Teaching
• REMEMBER
– NET and DTT should be done simultaneously
– Everyone in the classroom should be familiar with
both types of strategies and applying them to the
child in the classroom.
Teaching Students with Autism
• PRACTICE TIME!!!!!
– Choose a general skill
– Break it down into components to teach in DTT
– Describe your teaching procedure including materials
used, reinforcers used, schedule of reinforcement,
prompts you will use to correct, etc
– Describe your teaching procedure for promoting
generalization in the NET in the same way that you
described your DTT procedure
– Practice on each other (don’t make it easy ;-)
Teaching Students with Autism
QUESTIONS?????