Discrete Trial Training/Teaching (DTT)

1. Discrete Trial Training/Teaching(DTT) Megan Sullivan Kirby, BCBA ABA Program Manager Shamsi Sadeghzadeh, BCBA Director of Outreach Programs

2. Discrete Trial Training • DTT is based on “theory of learning” (early 1900) which believes that how a person behaves in a setting has to do with the history of that experience.

3. DTT Defined • Discrete Trial Training is a training regimen in which a discrete trial is the basis of teaching unit. • In general, a discrete trial consists of a single instructional exchange between the instructor and the child which includes: • a verbal directive (e.g., “say ball”) • a child response (e.g., “ball”), and • the reinforcement of a correct response (delivery of reinforcer) or correction procedure that follows an incorrect performance made by the child

4. Components of a Discrete Trial

5. Example

6. Discrete Trial Teaching Guidelines • Complexity of instruction • Don’t repeat the instruction • Do not use the client’s name in the instructional delivery • Consider the timing between trials (inter-trial interval) • Close your trial: • Immediate feedback • Reinforcement • Next trial

7. Maintain Behavioral Momentum • Use prompts to teach new skills, try to minimize errors, • …then, fade prompts as smoothly and quickly as client demonstrates success! • Re-trial: follow up a prompted trial with a trial that uses a lesser prompt or no prompt at all • Mix and vary trials to work on different skills • Intersperse fun and mastered tasks with more difficult, less preferred, or new tasks • Use reinforcement contingently

8. Discrete Trial Training • Skills are taught: • One step at a time, by breaking the overall task down into small parts • Over multiple opportunities, with repetition (not necessarily in a row) • Systematically: next step is determined through individual progress, as measured by data collection • Responses are reinforced

9. Maintenance and Generalization • Skills are practiced in progressively less structured settings and more natural situations. • Data driven decisions are made regarding progress, maintenance, generalization, and fluency. • It is believed that DTT maximizes learning because it is an ongoing process of evaluating performance and progress, and adjusting interventions accordingly.

10. Inter-trial Interval • Wait time, holds, inter-trial intervals… • Any brief pause in the instructional momentum (demand) after delivering the reinforcer and before starting the next trial. • An inter-trial interval helps to ensure that each trial is discrete from the next trial. • Allows for reinforcement opportunities to be tailored to the client’s needs (within-session reinforcer assessment).

11. Review (Correct Response)

12. GOLDEN RULE #1 If you want a behavior to occur again… • attention to task • listening to and following instructional demand • independent performance … pay attention to it and reinforce it!

13. Review (Incorrect Response)

14. GOLDEN RULE #2 If you want the client to perform a target response… • attention to task • listening to and following instructional demand • independent performance … ignore the problem/undesired response and provide prompts to assist the client with making contact with the correct target response!

15. Discrete Trial Teaching Goals • Area of Need: Reading Readiness • Annual Goal: Student will select and match non-identical items, pictures, and simple words to sample for at least 6 familiar stories read aloud in a group setting, as measured on 3 daily probes within one week. • Short-term Objectives:As measured on 3 daily probes within one week, Student will independently: • 1. Match 25+ non-identical novel pictures from at least 6 different familiar stories in a messy field of at least 6 • 2. Given one printed word on flashcard per trial, match 25+ different story words to corresponding pictures in a messy array of at least 6 visuals

16. Discrete Trial Teaching Goals • Area of Need: Receptive Instructions • Annual Goal: Student will independently follow a minimum of 15 staff-delivered oral classroom instructions (involving self, objects, other peers and staff) as measured on 4 daily probes per week, across two consecutive weeks. • Short-term Objectives:As measured on 4 daily probes over 2 consecutive weeks, Student will independently: • 1. Follow routine directions involving self and objects, in chair • 2. Follow routine directions involving self and objects, out of chair • 3. Follow novel directions with objects, in chair • 4. Follow routine directions out of chair, with objects and others

17. Precautionary Tales • Research by behavior analysts in the field (Smith, 2001; Carbone, Morgenstern, Zecchin-Tirri& Kolberg, 2007) have focused on the role of motivation in discrete trial instruction. • More than a third of all self-injurious and aggressive behaviors of persons with developmental disabilities are responses maintained by escape and avoidance of instructional demands, such as those delivered during discrete trial teaching (Derby et al., 1992; Iwata, et al., 1994).

18. Precautionary Tales • So, what do we do when the teacher becomes paired with the delivery of a demand (aversive) due to DTT’s protocol that requires the antecedent to be a teacher’s instructional demand? • Child begins to tantrum when teacher begins to set-up, arrange the task at the table, prior to even calling the student over to begin DTT! • Teacher can become a signal for the future presentation of “Work,” and the child avoids the teacher.

19. The Development of DTT as a Negative Experience- STAGE ONE

20. The Development of DTT as a Negative Experience- FUTURE SESSIONS

21. Prevent Staff from Becoming Signals for Worsening Condition • The person delivering the demand should not be the sole individual to do so… it is our job to pair ourselves with preferred activities in addition to being associated with instructional demands. • Story-telling during demand situations reduces escape-motivated responding and increases compliance with demands (Carr, Newsom & Binkoff, 1980). • Embedding genuine, positive familiar social comments prior to presenting a low-probability demand may decrease non-compliance in individuals with severe disabilities (Kennedy, Itkonen & Lindquist, 1995).

22. Prevent an Instruction from Becoming a Painful Stimuli • Use Errorless Learning procedures: • Prevent learner errors from occurring so soon during instruction; start with easy/mastery-level tasks and intersperse more difficult trials within (at a lower ratio) • Minimize learner errors by using prompts up-front, and fading them as the client experiences success • Fade in instructional demands: • Start by sitting next to the child, without any DTT demand • In the absence of problem behavior after five minutes, present only one mastery-level trial, reinforce correct performance, and cease the session • Increase the ratio of mastery-level demands presented over time, increase session duration, and increase difficulty level of demands

23. Prevent an Instruction from Becoming a Painful Stimuli, cont. • Change the pace of instruction • Short delays between consecutive trials can reduce “self-stim” behaviors in comparison to longer inter-response intervals • Shorter delays between trials = more discrete trials = more opportunities for reinforcement (if trials are kept short, too) • Brisk pace instruction reduces off-task behavior and increases the amount of skills acquired by the client overall

24. Prevent an Instruction from Becoming a Painful Stimuli, cont. Modifying the rate, difficulty, and effort of a child’s response requirements during discrete trial teaching opportunities reduce escape- and avoidance-motivated problem behaviors. Over time and one at a time, you should be able to increase the rate, difficulty, or response efforts of your instructional demands and observe the child’s increased level of participation and amount of progress made in the absence of such problem behaviors!

25. Prevent Materials from Becoming Aversive Stimuli • Probe preferences and assess reinforcement prior to session start • Use reinforcers that motivate the client to approach the instructional area • Vary the tasks within a DTT session (avoid “mass trialing”) • Doing the same task, day after day, is extremely boring! • Choice making • Offer the client the ability to choose what tasks they will work on, what reinforcers they can earn during DTT sessions • Introduce novel/new tasks gradually • Keep the value of task removal low by keeping the exposure to novel stimuli simple and present such materials gradually over several sessions

26. Take Home Points For more information on Discrete Trial Training: • visit Vincent Carbone’s website for videos: http://www.carboneclinic.com/videos/ • Read Ron Leaf and John McEachin’s publication, A Work In Progress (available for check-out through the VARC library at Grafton) • Contact Megan Kirby for modeling of a DTT session and more publications on the topic: megan.e.kirby01@grafton.org