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Discrete trial training (DTT) is a method for individualizing and simplifying instruction to enhance children's learning. For children with autism, DTT is especially useful for teaching new forms of behavior (e.g., speech sounds or motor movements that the child previously could not make) and new discriminations (e.g., responding correctly to different requests). DTT can also be used to teach more advanced skills and manage disruptive behavior. However, several cautions about DTT are noteworthy: First, the method must be combined with other interventions to enable children to initiate the use of their skills and display these skills across settings. Second, early in treatment, children with autism may require many hours of DTT per week, although controversy exists over precisely how much is appropriate. Third, to implement DTT effectively, teachers must have specialized training. Despite these limitations, DTT is one of the most important instructional methods for children with autism.
Typically developing children continually learn from their environment throughout their waking hours via exploration, creative play, modeling, conversation, and so on (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997). Unfortunately, children with autism tend to have little skill or inclination to learn in this manner. Moreover, they often fail to understand communicative efforts made by adults attempting to help them learn (Spradlin & Brady, 1999). As a result, these children are likely to experience frustration in teaching situations, and, understandably, they may react to such frustration with tantrums and other efforts to escape or avoid future failures. Therefore, a critical yet difficult task for service providers is to find ways to increase learning opportunities for children with autism and enhance their motivation to learn.
Fortunately, investigators have conducted hundreds of studies on how to accomplish this task and have identified a wide range of effective approaches (Green, 2000). Perhaps the most extensively studied approach is an applied behavior analytic (ABA) procedure called discrete trial training (DTT). A discrete trial is a small unit of instruction (usually lasting only 5-20 seconds) implemented by a teacher who works one to one with a child in a distraction-free setting. (For simplicity, this article will refer to "teachers" and "children." However, it should be noted that not only teachers but also professional and nonprofessional therapists, including family members, can implement DTT, and that both...