 Enable
greater independence therefore
less reliance on staff/family for basic
needs
 give a sense of success
 Should
be done in real life environments
 Should focus on skills the person needs
in their day to day life
 Communication
 Self Help
 Work
 Having fun
 We
are all dependent on context,
environmental cues, prompts and
reinforcement in order for us to learn
new skills
 Often for people with ASD, we need to
make the context, prompts and
reinforcement much more obvious in
order that learning can take place
Discuss the following points in relation to the
video clip:
 The learning environment
 The skills that Chris has now
 Skills he could learn
 Provide brief feedback
Don’t get into discussion about teaching
methods, that comes later!
Three common teaching methods
 Discrete Trial Training
 Incidental/Naturalistic Teaching
 Structured Teaching
 Observe
the person attempting the task
& record where they need support
 Have a clear & measurable goal
 Break the task into manageable steps
 Use knowledge of person & task to
decide teaching method
 Have a system for measuring success
 Task
Analysis
 Chaining
 Prompting
 Reinforcement
 Breaking
down a task into manageable
steps
 Rule of thumb: The more disabled the
person is, the smaller the steps should be
 Steps should be described in clear and
unambiguous language
 Refers
to the order in which the steps are
taught
 Forward Chaining=Start to Finish
 Backward Chaining=Finish to Start
 Global Chaining=Start at easiest step
 INDIRECT VERBAL
 DIRECT VERBAL
 GESTURAL/VISUAL
 MODELING
 PARTIAL
PHYSICAL ASSIST
 FULL PHYSICAL ASSIST
What motivates the person to learn the
skill?
• Naturally occurring consequence
• Adding an extra
 Task
is broken into steps (task analysis)
 The same prompt is used for each
attempt
 Reinforcement is given on completion of
task
 If task is not completed=failed trial, try
again later
 Frequent repetition, referred to as drills
 the
discriminative stimulus (SD)-- the
instruction or environmental cue to which the
teacher would like the individual to respond
 the prompting stimulus (SP)-- a prompt or
cue from the teacher to help the individual
respond correctly (optional)
 the response (R)-- the skill or behavior that is
the target of the instruction, or a portion thereof
 the reinforcing stimulus (SR)-- a reward
designed to motivate the individual to respond
and respond correctly
 the inter-trial interval (ITI)-- a brief pause
between consecutive trials
Not a preferred method for most adults,
but useful for adults with ASD and
intellectual disability for:
• Teaching a work related skill that
involves lots of repetition e.g. sorting
recycling, assembly line work
• “Academic” tasks such as learning to use
PECS or sign language
 the
discriminative stimulus (SD)-- teacher
says “time for a biscuit Brian” and puts the
biscuit jar on the table
 the prompting stimulus (SP)– Teacher says
“Biscuit, Brian” accompanied by the pointing to
the biscuit card.
 the response (R)– Brian touches the biscuit
card.
 the reinforcing stimulus (SR)– Teacher says,
“Well done Brian, and offers him a biscuit from
the jar.
 Repeat 3 times
In your group
1. Identify a simple skill that would suit the
DTT approach
2. Put together a teaching plan that has the
•
discriminative stimulus (initial prompt)
• prompting stimulus (specific prompt)
• response (the behaviour/skill)
• reinforcer
 Uses “in
the moment” opportunities that
occur in daily life
 Uses prompts that are known to be
successful for that person.
 Not just random, opportunities for
learning are planned
 Also
known as Graduated Assistance
 Can be used in “Most to Least” or “Least
to Most” formats
 More “natural” in appearance
 INDIRECT VERBAL
(IV): What do you need to
do next Rob?
 DIRECT VERBAL (DV): Rob, put the paper on
the tray, writing side upwards
 GESTURE: Point to the tray on the photocopier
 MODELING: Put the paper in the tray yourself
so that Rob can observe
 PARTIAL PHYSICAL ASSIST (PPA): Pass Rob the
paper to be copied and guide him by the
elbow to place the paper in the tray
 FULL PHYSICAL ASSIST (FPA): Hand-over-hand
assistance to put the paper in the tray
 Discuss
how you would go about finding
which type of prompts were most
effective for a person with ASD and
severe intellectual disability.
Identify the natural reinforcers for people
and take advantage of those
opportunities where a natural reinforcer
is occurs
 Uses
the teaching methods of task
analysis, prompting, chaining,
reinforcement
 A key aspect of the TEACCH approach
 Doesn’t have a strong evidence base as
an overall concept, but the component
parts do
Either,
1. Mangers, identify how you can support
your staff to assist people with ASD to
increase their daily living/work skills
2. Support staff/Therapists: Identify a
person you work with, find out what type
of prompts they respond best to and
teach this to your colleagues