ABA/Discrete Trial Teaching - Training
Discrete Trial Teaching
|
SD ------------------ > |
R |
< -------------------- SR |
|
(prompt) |
(feedback) |
Discriminative Stimulus (SD)
Let's the student know that there is a positive reinforcer available if the student responds correctly. An instruction or a question.
Response
Any behavior that occurs contingent upon the SD.
Reinforcing Stimulus (SR)
Any stimulus event that immediately follows the student's response and increases the likelihood that the behavior will reoccur. Must be delivered immediately following the desired behavior. Behavior happens in a continuous stream, and you don't want to inadvertantly reinforce the wrong behavior.
Examples:
Positive Reinforcement (when you add something pleasant to a situation)
Primary reinforcer; food or drink
Secondary reinforcer; toys, praise, tickles
Negative Reinforcement (when you take away something unpleasant from a situation)
Feedback
Always paired with SR. Let's the student know if his/her response was correct or incorrect. When a student is reinforced by praise the feedback can also be used as the positive reinforcer.
You must give feedback after every response, including a nonresponse
Make sure that your "good job's" sound different from you 11nolsit
Examples:
The teacher says, "Touch your nose." (SD)
The student touches his/her nose (Response)
The teacher gives the student praise and a piece of a cookie (positive reinforcement)
The teacher says, "What's your name?" (SD)
The student says, "My name is Johnny." (response)
The teacher gives the student praise and 5 seconds to play with a toy (positive reinforcement)
Examples:
For a correct (desired) response ..... "good job" " you're right" " that's correct"
For an incorrect (undesired) response...."nope" "no" " try again" "oops"
Prompt
Anything the teacher "adds" to facilitate a correct response. MUST BE FADED OVER TIME TO AVOID PROMPT DEPENDENCE.
Other Reference Terms
- Mastered-once the student has demonstrated a targeted behavior consistently with 90% accuracy the behavior is considered mastered.
- Receptive-when a student "receives" infon-nation.
- Expressive-when a student expresses information
- Acquisition-when a student is still learning a particular response
- Shaping-when successive approximations of the desired response are reinforced.
- Chaining-the creation of a complex behaivor by combing simple behaviors that are already in the student's repretoire.
- Generalization-2 different people, 3 different settings, 3 different stimuli
- Maintenance-practicing/using a behavior that has been mastered in the natural environment.
- Sabatoge-contriving situations in the environment so that the student must use a behavior
- Self-stimulatory behavior
Behavior Management
- Extinction-NO consequences (positive or negative) are given to a particular response. This procedure is used to reduce undesired behaviors.
- Over correction
- Punishment
- Time-out procedure
- Differential Reinforcement of Other Behaviors (DRO), Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behavior (DRA)
- Differential Reinforcement of Incompatable behavior (DRI)
- Positive Practice
Schedules of Reinforcement
- Continuous-when a correct response is reinforced every time it is elicited.
- Intermittent-when a correct response is reinforced every 3-4 times it is elicited
- Delayed-token economy
Description of Prompts
| Type of Prompt | Description | Example |
| Full Physical Assistance (Full) | Student requires physical assistance to complete a task. The teacher will "hand-over-hand" the student to ensure a correct response. | When teaching the student to imitate the movement of tapping on the table the teacher takes the child's hand and taps the table with it. |
| Partial Physical Assistance (Part) | Student requires partial physical assistance to complete a task. | When teaching the student to imitate the movement of tapping on the table the teacher takes the students hand an lets go of it right above the table. Or the teacher taps the students hand to prompt the student to do something with it. |
| Full Model (FM) | Teacher models what the desired response of the student is. | When teaching the receptive instruction "clap" the teacher claps while he/she is telling the student to clap. |
| Partial Model (PM) | Teacher models only part of the response that is desired from the student. | When teaching the receptive instruction "clap" the teacher puts his/her hands in front of her/himself, but does not actually clap. |
| Full Verbal Model (FVM) | Teacher verbally models what the desired response of the student is. | When teaching the expressive label "cup" the teacher asks, "What is it? Say cup." |
| Partial Verbal Model (PVM) | Teacher verbally models only part of the desired response of the student. | When teaching the expressive label "cup" the teacher asks, "What is it? Say c....". |
| Gesture (G) | Teacher makes some kind of gesture to prompt the desired response of the student. | When teaching the function of an object the teacher says, "What do you drink with?" while holding his/her hand to his/her mouth shaping it like a cup. |
| Proximity (PR) | Teacher places a stimulus in a particular location. | When teaching the receptive label "shoe" the teacher places the shoe closest to the student. |
| Point (P) | Teacher points | When teaching the receptive label "shoe" the teacher points to the shoe. |
Discrimination Training
- Mass Trial (MT)
A series of successive teaching trials that ensure success on the part of the student. The mass trial phase begins with prompted trials, then the teacher systematically fades the promt until the student can complete the request independently. If a teacher is requesting a stimulus (i.e., "cup") the teacher will request the "cup" several times in a row with nothing else on the table.
Distracter Phase-the teacher places the targeted item on the table with known or unknown distracters, but still only requests the targeted item. Still considered a mass trial.
- Expanded Trial (Exp. T)
A series of teaching trials with distracters. The amount of distracters presented to the student is increased systematically. The distracter(s) can be a known or an unknown stimulus to the student. The expanded trial phase is important to build memory retention.
Exp. T with 1 distracter
Exp. T with 2 distracters
Exp. T with 3 distracters
Distracters used in expanded trials can range from Nonverbal imitation gestures, Verbal Imitation targets, mastered receptive action targets, to known targets in the specific program you are teaching.
- Random Rotation (RR)
The target response is randomly rotated with other target responses (i.e., cup vs. book).