ABA Autism Training - Chapter 1 - The Discrete Trial

the first video in the series will provide you with an overview of one of the basic tools used in intensive behavioral interventions the discret trial the discret trial is made up of several distinct components nice sitting good girl it begins with the SD or discriminative stimulus do this oh this is the instruction given by the therapist to the child next the therapist either waits for the child to respond or provides some help in the form of a prompt if needed finally once the child has responded the child is given reinforcement a reward for a correct response or a correction for an incorrect response what yep let's try it again do this all right good trying I like how hard your working you have just witnessed one discrete trial after a brief pause the therapist then begins another complete discrete trial a discret trial is made up of the following three components an SD in the form of an instruction by the therapist to the child a response from the child or a prompt from the therapist and finally reinforcement or correction if necessary from the therapist let's now examine each of these three components in detail starting with the SD though generally an oral instruction an SD can also be non-verbal such as a picture a toy like Mr Potato Head placed on a table or the sight of a swing you are super a good SD must follow several guidelines in order to be effective first all SDS should be clear and consistent they should be free of extraneous information and finally they should be delivered in a voice slightly louder than a normal speaking tone now we will demonstrate what a good SD looks and sounds like do this way to go wonderful touch half oh wa oh that sounds so neat doing match W now we will demonstrate what a poor SD looks and sounds like touch my nose whoa put one up for me where's my nose that's right wow find my nose oh oh that's super Corey we will play the Good SD once again take note that the therapist speaks clearly and consistant uses a short concise instruction without extraneous information and speaks slightly louder than he or she normally would do this way to go wonderful touch half oh wa oh that sounds so [Music] neat do this good girl do this do this [Music] marvelous do this do this that's right Corey do this do this wonderful do this do this oh amazing let's go [Music] play now that we have covered the basics of delivering a good SD we will move on to the next step in discrete trials prompting or waiting for a response when First beginning to teach a new task the therapist should immediately prompt after giving the SD one a prompt is some form of assistance to help ensure that the child responds correctly this teaches the child how he or she should respond to the SD indeed anytime a therapist is not certain that the child is capable of responding correctly to an SD independently the therapist should prompt immediately that the next step is the gradual removal of the prompt this occurs once the therapist believes the skill being taught has been learned and once he or she is sure that the prompt is no longer needed when removing a prompt the therapist must be careful to avoid inadvertently giving a delayed prompt this situation can occur when the therapist thinks the child knows the correct response what does this say the therapist gives an SD pauses and waits for the child to respond realizes that the child is not going to respond or is responding in correctly and jumps in with a prompt the therapist must decide before delivering an SD whether or not to prompt and if so to deliver the prompt immediately after the SD we will now move on to the third and final component of a discret trial reinforcement or correction once an SD has been given the child responds in one of two ways either the child responds correctly and reinforcement is delivered or the child responds incorrectly and a corrective procedure is applied we will begin with reinforcement which is sometimes called a reward when providing reinforcement to a child there are several key points to keep in mind in order to maximize its Effectiveness first reinforcement must imediately follow a correct response reinforcement is given whether the child responds independently or with the help of a prompt the second principle of reinforcement is that it should be enthusiastic and involved if you are excited and enthusiastic when delivering the reward the child will enjoy the reinforcement more and that will lead to Better Learning lastly reinforcement should be varied if the same stale rewards are used all the time they will lose their Effectiveness it remember effective reinforcement is best achieved if given immediately after a correct response by the child given in an enthusiastic and involved Manner and if the reward is varied there is one eventuality that we have not yet covered what happens if the therapist delivers an SD and the child gives an incorrect response there are two approaches to dealing with incorrect responses one which uses an informational no and one which does not the traditional approach is to use an informational no when the child gives the incorrect response instead of giving a reward the therapist responds by saying no in a neutral tone of voice where does Grandma work um he he works in the house no where does grammar work say library library boink yay let's watch that again the no is not meant to be aversive or punishing it is simply meant to provide the neutral information that the response was incorrect and will not be rewarded where does Grandma work um he he works in the house no where does grammar work say library library boink yay now you get starers the therapist then goes on to give the same SD again but on that next trial the therapist prompts the child to ensure that the child gets the response correct another approach is to leave out the informational no with this approach if the child gives an incorrect response the therapist pauses a moment without giving reinforcement but does not say no thumbs up the therapist then begins another discreet trial and prompts immediately after the SD is delivered there this is to ensure that the child gets the response correct let's watch The arless Learning correction one more time thumbs up thumbs up [Music] there we have now reviewed the three components of the discrete trial the SD itself The Prompt or waiting for a response and reinforcement of Correction the remaining videos in this series will explore these and other topics in detail we hope that you have benefited from this video and that you will continue to learn as you work your way through the [Music] series

Channel: Matt Wiley

Views: 1,975,241

Keywords: ABA, Applied Behaviour Analysis, Autism Therapy, IBI, University of New Brunswick, UNB

Id: 7pN6ydLE4EQ

Length: 10min 36sec (636 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 07 2012