Author: hellenbarroso

Here is a video from a current BCBA in the field that shares basic strategies that you will encounter as you run session. Remember, this blog is all about being practical and we’ll do that with the permanent product found below:

Time to practice:

1. Identify the strategies used in this video.
2. What challenging behaviors did you observe?
3. How were these challenging behaviors redirected/addressed?

Feel free to answer these questions in the comments section below!

Big skills, small steps.

There are things we want our clients to learn that perhaps they don’t come into contact with enough or they don’t receive sufficient support as they are being taught these concepts. In this situation, we often break down larger skills into more manageable steps that have lots of practice opportunities and chance to earn reinforcement– we call this process Discrete Trial Training (DTT).

I thoroughly enjoyed the following video due to its efficient example and commentary. I recommend starting it at time stamp 1:43. Let’s look at it now!

Another super helpful and comprehensive video is the following:

Now try to identify the following on your own:

• S^d (discriminative stimulus)
• Target behavior (B) or prompt
• S^r (conditioned reinforcer) or correction

Check the following post for more tips on DTT:

These are some recommendations that I provided for my RBTs.

PREPARE

Before DTT- Things to do to prepare for DTT:

• Look through the targets in client’s plan to determine what you can add to your session
• Identify skills that client already knows, is learning, and does not know (include them in DTT)
• Create a document with the tasks you will have your client do during DTT so that you can mark the activities as + or – as you go instead of having to pause and look through your data collection software (if you use one) to mark the target.

RUN YOUR TRIALS

During DTT– Things you can do in the discrete trial setting:

• Ask client to imitate a sequence of movements
• Ask client to spell a sight word 
• As client to read a sight word
• Ask a social skills question
• Work on discrimination (touch the car, in an array of pictures)
• Present 1, 2, and 3-step instructions
• Practice receptive identification
• Practice tacting

EXAMPLE: 

  1. say “mama”- imitation 

  2. touch nose- receptive 

  3. give me pencil- receptive 

  4. stand up- receptive 

  6. what color- expressive 

  5. how many- expressive 

  6. What is your name?- expressive 

REFLECT

After DTT– What to do when you’re done:

• Mark if correct responding occurred based on the paper you filled out as you carried out your trials
• Identify what you need to spend more time teaching or how you will modify your discrete trials in the future.

Hope this helped!

We are here to:

• Learn via scenarios provided to identify functions of behavior.
• Observe exceptional models in the field on what my sessions could look like.
• Share conceptually systematic best practices and their outcomes.

I once was lost, but now I will:

Differentially reinforce my alternative behaviors to fumbling about in the practice of ABA by:

• Identifying the needs of my clients using a data-driven approach
• Searching for concepts on skills that I can improve on
• Challenge myself to speak up when I am uncertain of a procedure or concept.

As long as you actively seek out new ideas and provide yourself with the space to grow, you will find applied behavior analysis extremely rewarding and your clients will too!

Good luck on your journey, practice culturally responsive ABA, and have loads of fun!