Discrete Trial Teaching Research Articles

Comparing Two Data Collection Procedures to Teach Academic Targets within a Group Instructional Format

ABSTRACT This study aimed to extend previous literature comparing continuous methods of data collection to estimation data, but this time implementing the data collection procedures within a group discrete trial teaching format with three individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Group discrete trial teaching was conducted in a classroom setting using relevant academic targets for each child. The data collection procedures were examined in terms of accuracy of data collection, efficiency of teaching (i.e. number of trials delivered per session), and rate of child acquisition of targets. Results of the adapted alternating treatment design replicated across sets and multiple targets indicated that estimation data was found to be a valid data collection method in identifying mastery, with only two instances where the mastery probe did not confirm mastery. Trial-by-trial data indicated mastery four times in which a probe for mastery did not confirm mastery of targets. Additionally, it was found that instructors conducted more teaching trials within the estimation data condition across all learners and training sets and social validity measures indicated overall favorable responses toward the estimation data collection procedure from both instructors.

The Effects of Discrete Trial and Natural Environment Teaching on Adaptive Behavior in Toddlers With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The literature has yet to review the differential effects of Natural Environment Teaching (NET) and Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) on adaptive skills. A sample of 142 children diagnosed with ASD between the ages of 16 and 35 months received either DTT, NET, or both interventions (NET+ DTT). The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID) Adaptive Subscale and the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) Barriers Assessment were used as baseline and posttest measures. Children who received NET and NET+DTT conditions showed significant improvements compared to the DTT condition indicating that the addition of NET leads to increased adaptive skills and decreased barrier behaviors in participants. DTT may also play a necessary foundational role for children with more significant delays. These results provide support for the use of a combination of teaching strategies in community-based early intervention and refine protocols for teaching adaptive skills to toddlers with ASD.

Effects of Initial versus Frequent Preference Assessments on Skill Acquisition

AbstractPrevious researchers have demonstrated that using stimuli identified via daily brief preference assessments may produce more responding under concurrent-schedule arrangements than using stimuli identified via lengthy, pre-treatment preference assessments (DeLeon et al., 2001). To date, this has not been evaluated within the context of skill acquisition. Thus, the extent to which conducting daily brief preference assessments impacts the rate of skill acquisition during discrete trial instruction (DTI) remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how frequent, pre-session preference assessments, influence the rate of skill acquisition relative to an initial preference assessment during DTI sessions for three children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Two of the three children acquired the targeted skills faster in the frequent preference assessment condition. The third participant showed no difference in the rate of skill acquisition.

Effects of Parent and Teacher Mediated Pivotal Response Treatment and Discrete-Trial Training in Improving Communication Skills of Children with Autism

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of parent and teacher-mediated pivotal response treatment and discrete-trial teaching in improving the communication skills of children with Autism. The research deployed an ABAB research design. ABAB was divided into 4 phases; A1, B1, A2, and B2. A1 was a baseline, B1 was treatment, A2 was the removal of the treatment, and B2 was the treatment resumed following the break, and at last, a follow-up was conducted. In the study, three children who fulfilled the inclusionary criteria participated. The three children received PRT and DTT from their parents and teachers respectively. The instruments used for assessment were social communication questionnaire-Lifetime, Autism diagnostic interview-revised, and Vineland -3 Adaptive behavioral scale (communication domain). The study result indicated that Parent and Teacher mediated PRT and DTT significantly improved the communication skills of children with ASD.

Deriving relations at multiple levels of complexity following minimal instruction: A demonstration.

Recommendations for achieving generalized instructional outcomes often overlook the capacity for generative learning for most verbally competent humans. Four children (ages 5-8) participated in this project. In Study 1, we provided decontextualized discrete trial teaching to establish arbitrary relations between colors, pictures of characters, and researcher motor actions. All participants engaged in derivative responding, providing evidence of relational framing. Subsequently, we demonstrated that, with no additional instruction, these derivatives contributed to effective action within a socially valid context (i.e., Candyland gameplay). Study 2 extended the demonstration by teaching frames of opposition. Following teaching, all participants engaged in novel and contextually appropriate responding that entailed the derivation of both coordination and opposition between untrained stimuli. This outcome demonstrates how teaching simple relations can result in learning that manifests at higher levels of complexity (i.e., relational networking), providing some evidence that there can be socially valid benefits to decontextualized discrete trial instruction.

Training individuals to implement discrete-trial teaching procedures using behavioral skills training: A scoping review with implications for practice and research.

Behavioral skills training (BST) is an evidence-based approach for training individuals to implement discrete-trial teaching procedures. Despite the effectiveness of this approach, implementing BST can be time and resource intensive, which may interfere with a clinical organization's adoption of this training format. We conducted a scoping review of studies using BST components for training discrete-trial teaching procedures in peer-reviewed articles between 1977 and 2021. We identified 51 studies in 46 publications involving 354 participants. We coded descriptive data on (a) participant characteristics, (b) study characteristics, (c) training conditions (including instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback), and (d) training outcomes. The results indicated that studies have primarily attempted to improve the efficacy and efficiency of BST by modifying or omitting common training components. We provide best-practice considerations for using BST to teach discrete-trial teaching procedures and offer a research agenda to guide future investigation in this area.

Identifying and Validating Indices of Happiness and Unhappiness in Autistic Children and Examining Them as Quality of Life Indicators During Presession Pairing

ObjectivesHappiness is paramount to an improved quality of life (QoL), but there are barriers to assessing the happiness and overall QoL of autistic children using traditional measures. To address this, Study 1 aimed to identify and validate the idiosyncratic mood indices of three autistic children. In Study 2, these indices were measured as QoL indicators during discrete trial teaching (DTT) sessions that followed presession pairing. Task engagement was recorded as a secondary measure.MethodsThree preschool boys on the autism spectrum participated in both studies. Their individualized indices of happiness and unhappiness were first identified and validated using an abbreviated procedure that extended previous research. The effects of presession pairing were then examined using a concurrent multiple baseline design across participants. The idiosyncratic mood indices were measured using 10-s partial interval recording, while task engagement was measured using 15-s whole interval recording.ResultsStudy 1 demonstrated that the abbreviated procedure was efficient for identifying and validating the idiosyncratic mood indices of the participants. Study 2 found that presession pairing improved the mood of all three children during DTT, but there were minimal increases in task engagement. Percentage of nonoverlapping data (PND) scores initially revealed no effects for indices of happiness (M = 43.2%), large effects for indices of unhappiness (M = 76.4%), and no effects for task engagement (M = 37.6%). Contrary to this, omnibus Tau-U scores suggested large effects for indices of happiness (Tau-U = 0.7), very large effects for indices of unhappiness (Tau-U = 0.9), and moderate effects for task engagement (Tau-U = 0.5).ConclusionsIndividualized indices of happiness and unhappiness can and should be used as QoL indicators during behavioral interventions for autistic children.

Randomized, controlled trial of a mixed early start Denver model for toddlers and preschoolers with autism.

The early start Denver model (ESDM) has been extensively studied as a promising early intervention approach for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Various methodological drawbacks from earlier ESDM investigations must be rectified to expand the application scopes. For this purpose, the present study recruited a very large sample of 249 autistic children (aged 24-47 months), and used a randomized controlled design to compare outcomes from a mixed ESDM (M-ESDM) intervention with a mixed discrete trial teaching (M-DTT) intervention which remains one of the most commonly-used programming for early intervention. Over the course of a 12-week period, both groups (i.e., M-ESDM and M-DTT groups) received 25 h of intensive intervention per week using individual, group, and parent coaching techniques. Findings showed that: (i) the M-ESDM significantly outperformed the M-DTT in enhancing children's developmental abilities in gross motor and personal-social skills for toddlers and preschoolers, as well as in language for preschoolers with mild/moderate ASD and toddlers; and (ii) the M-ESDM dramatically reduced the severity of autistic symptoms in toddlers with severe ASD only, when compared to the M-DTT. However, the M-ESDM did not outperform the M-DTT in terms of improving children's developmental abilities in adaptability and fine motor for toddlers and preschoolers, as well as in language for preschoolers with severe ASD. In addition, when compared to the M-DTT, the M-ESDM did not show an advantage in reducing the severity of autistic symptoms in toddlers with mild/moderate ASD and preschoolers. Clinical Trial Registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry. Registration number ChiCTR200039492.

화살표 시각 단서를 활용한 개별시도교수가 자폐스펙트럼장애 아동의 반향어에 미치는 효과

In this study, the researchers aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Discrete Trial Teaching utilizing visual arrow supports on reducing the use of echolalia in children with autism spectrum disorders. The study participants included three children with autism spectrum disorders who exhibited echolalic speech. The research design employed a multiple baseline across subjects design. The intervention consisted of two phases: in Phase 1, participants were taught to respond to cues with arrow visual supports for labeling, while in Phase 2, participants were taught to respond to cues using arrow motion cards as visual supports to understand and replace echolalic utterances with relevant responses. The results of the study indicated that the echolalia usage of all three children decreased during intervention and this reduction was maintained and generalized across sessions. These findings suggest that individual interventions utilizing visual arrow supports can be an effective method to reduce echolalia in children with autism spectrum disorders who are characterized as visual learners.

Effects of Jargon on Parent Implementation of Discrete Trial Teaching

Effects of Jargon on Parent Implementation of Discrete Trial Teaching

Comparing Multiple Methods to Measure Procedural Fidelity of Discrete-trial Instruction.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43494-023-00094-w.

A Comparison of Telehealth-Based Instruction with or without Instructive Feedback.

Language delays are commonly displayed by children on the autism spectrum. To help facilitate the development of verbal behavior, practitioners often implement intensive one-on-one, face-to-face instruction. However, the COVID-19 pandemic hindered typical face-to-face service delivery and caused practitioners to assess alternative approaches to facilitate clients' continued progress. Instructive feedback (IF) is one teaching strategy to enhance instruction or make it more efficient. During this teaching procedure, instructors provide formal teaching of target responses and embed demonstrations of secondary target responses within sequences of instruction. In the current study, we investigated the efficacy of IF provided within telehealth instruction. Four participants on the autism spectrum participated in the study. Participants received two forms of telehealth instruction that targeted speaker-responding. The first form consisted of discrete trial instruction (DTI), and the second form combined DTI with IF. These results indicate that both forms of instruction improved speaker-responding of primary targets for all participants. Additionally, a secondary analysis of secondary targets indicated that two of the four participants acquired some secondary targets. These results suggest that including IF within DTI might be beneficial for some participants receiving DTI via telehealth.

Discrete Trial Teaching Method to Improve Receptive Language Skills in Children with Global Developmental Delay

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the Discrete Trial Teaching method in improving the receptive language skills of children with Global Developmental Delay. The receptive language skills provided in this intervention are recognizing body parts in the facial area. This research is an-experimental research with a single subject research, which uses the A-B-A model. Baseline measurements were carried out twice, namely before and after the implementation of the intervention. This study used 20 sessions consisting of 5 sessions for the first baseline, 10 intervention sessions and 5 sessions for the second baseline. The participant of this study was a boy aged 3 years and 6 months who was diagnosed with Global Developmental Delay. Data analysis used in this study is visual analysis which includes 6 components. The results showed that there was an increase in scores and with an upward trend and good stability, so it can be concluded that the Discrete Trial Teaching method can effectively improve the receptive language skills of children with Global Developmental Delay.

Teaching Supervisory Skills to Behavior Analysts and Improving Therapist-Delivered Discrete Trial Teaching

ABSTRACT This study evaluated a systematic method of training and evaluating supervisors in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) settings. Using a concurrent multiple baseline across subjects design, this study assessed the use of a training protocol designed to teach masters’ and doctoral-level Board Certified Behavior Analysts® (BCBA®s/BCBA-D®s) to supervise therapists administering discrete trial teaching (DTT) sessions for children with autism spectrum disorder. Therapists’ performances before and during training for their supervisors was also assessed. Results revealed that the implementation of systematic supervision training improved supervisor and therapist performances when compared to baseline values.

Dynamic Assessment of AAC Action Verb Symbols for Children with ASD.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) make progress in learning to use action verb symbols on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) applications across different communicative functions (requesting, labeling) and instructional formats (embedded instruction, discrete trial teaching). Four preschool-aged children completed graduated prompting dynamic assessment sessions in which they were provided with varying levels of support (e.g., models, gestures) across three instructional conditions: (a) requesting actions embedded in play, (b) labeling actions embedded in play, and (c) labeling actions presented via video during discrete trial teaching. An adapted multielement single-case design was used to compare participants' abilities to use symbols with different levels of support across the instructional conditions and a control. Differences between instructional and control conditions were established for three participants. Three participants also reduced the levels of support they needed to use symbols in at least two instructional conditions. Although participants initially required lower levels of support (i.e., less restrictive prompts) in the requesting condition compared to labeling conditions, these differences only maintained for one participant. Across participants, differences between labeling conditions were minimal. Although children with ASD can use verb symbols with low levels of support during DA, additional intervention may be needed to increase independent responding. Individual characteristics may influence success across communicative functions.

The effective learning of discrete trial teaching: Evidence from pre-service teachers of children with autism

The effective learning of discrete trial teaching: Evidence from pre-service teachers of children with autism

Evaluation of a Telehealth Training Package to Remotely Teach Caregivers to Conduct Discrete-Trial Instruction

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of using telehealth technologies to remotely train caregivers of children with ASD to conduct discrete-trial instruction (DTI). We used a multiple-baseline-across-participants design to evaluate caregiver correct implementation of the DTI procedures and child emission of independent correct tacts as dependent measures. We observed robust and immediate improvements for all three caregivers and two of three children. Treatment effects were maintained during follow-up and generalization probes. We discuss the benefits of telehealth technologies and other remote treatment applications.

Teaching Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder to Answer Questions Using an iPad-Based Speech-Generating Device.

This study investigated whether a systematic instruction package was effective in child acquisition of question answering using an iPad-based speech generating device (SGD). The study was conducted with two children with autism using a multiple probe across behaviors design. Results demonstrated that the systematic instruction package consisting of graduated guidance, discrete trial teaching, time delay, and reinforcement resulted in acquisition of answering all questions. Follow-up data were collected one, three, and five weeks after instruction ended. For all participants, skills maintained during follow-up and generalized to novel settings and skills. Social validity data were also collected and indicated that teachers without experience using SGDs found them to be effective and feasible for teaching communication skills.

Comparison of Traditional and Embedded Discrete Trial Teaching on the Acquisition of Receptive Identification Skills: A Systematic Replication in Adults with Autism

Comparison of Traditional and Embedded Discrete Trial Teaching on the Acquisition of Receptive Identification Skills: A Systematic Replication in Adults with Autism

A Comparison Between Direct Telehealth and In-Person Methods of Teaching Expressive Labels to Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Recent behavior analytic research has demonstrated that the provision of applied behavior analytic services via direct telehealth can be an effective teaching modality for some learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Historically, teaching procedures based on applied behavior analysis (ABA), including discrete trial teaching (DTT), have been provided and evaluated via in-person delivery. This study sought to compare the implementation of DTT via direct telehealth to DTT implemented in-person within and across participants. Specifically, this study evaluated the two delivery modalities in terms of skill acquisition, maintenance, efficiency, and learner responding during teaching sessions. Results of an adapted alternating treatments design nested into a multiple baseline design demonstrated that all three participants diagnosed with ASD met the mastery criteria for the expressive labels taught. Areas of future research, participant prerequisite skills, and clinical implications will be discussed in the context of these results.