Teaching a New Skill

When using the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis to teach new skills, targets are broken down into the smallest possible components in order to ensure clean and effective results. Although this sounds simple, there are many things to consider. The first step in teaching a new skill is to identify a socially relevant, functional and developmentally appropriate goal. For example: teaching a toddler the skill of “waving bye-bye”

Prior to teaching the target skill you should also:

1. Select a minimally distracting teaching environment
2. Determine effective ways to establish the learner’s attention
3. Identify potent and motivating reinforcers
4. Schedule of Reinforcement
5. Behaviorally define what the target skill should look like
6. Prompts
7. Determine how errors will be corrected

Other important things to consider are:

8. Repetition (or practice of a target skill)
9. Instruction (direction presented also referred to as the “Sd” or “discriminative stimulus”)
10. How the skill will be generalized across novel situations, people, settings
11. How to maintain the skill across time
12. Data Collection

1. Select a minimally distracting teaching environment  As in all aspects of good teaching, determining an appropriate learning environment should always be individualized according to the needs of the target student. There is always a delicate balance between making a setting too isolated (therefore not challenging the student to become accustomed to common distractors) and too distracting (where the learner is unable to attend therefor nullifying the teaching efforts). A good rule of thumb for a new learner is to select a teaching environment that is minimally distracting to the learner. This of course, should be an aspect to continually assess and modify in order to challenge the learner as he/she progresses in their ability to ignore distractions.Things to consider when minimizing distractions:
   • Maintain a clear working space without unnecessary materials on the table or the floor around you
   • Keep ambient noises to a minimum in our outside of the learning area
   • Decorations on the walls or room should be kept minimal if this is a known visual distraction to your learner
   • Position students away from windows or doorways that can easily be looked out of
   • Even consider the clothing and accessories of the instructor when determining possible distractions
2. Determine effective ways to establish the learner’s attention – Similar to selecting a minimally distracting teaching environment, establishing attending is always individualized to the learner’s needs. New students may require physical prompts to gain fleeting attention while more experienced students may have progressed to the ability of spontaneously looking at the instructor between teaching opportunities without the need for supplemental prompts. However, for those still in the “teaching phase” of establishing spontaneous attending during teaching interactions below are some tips to establishing attending during teaching interactions:
   • Depending on the learner, use edibles, small toys, tokens or even teaching materials to bring a learner’s eye contact up to the instructor’s eye level prior to the onset of each teaching interaction. If you are shaping attending as a skill, you should avoid calling the learner’s name repeatedly as a way to establish visual attending. This can lead to dependence and adds and additional “step” in the teaching interaction
   • Shape attending behavior by placing the learner in a height-appropriate chair, with feet flat on the ground, and depending on the task with hands on lap/or work space while facing the instructor/or work space
   • Intermittently acknowledge attending with verbal praise, tangible reinforcement or social praise (e.g., a smile), to shape attending incidentally
   • Position yourself close to the learner. By positioning yourself close to the learner you are minimizing distractions in the environment by physically blocking them from the student’s view
3. Identify potent and motivating reinforcers  Routine preference assessments are a valuable way of determining tangibles, activities and interactions that the learner is most motivated by. Other valuable tips include:
   
   • Rotating toys, books, tangibles and activities regularly to avoid satiation
   • When a potent reinforcer is identified reserve it for the most challenging teaching programs instead of using it for all programs to maximize potency
   • Continually add variety to reinforcers. This does not have to be costly. Borrowing books from the library is a good way to keep your selection fresh!
   • Providers should bring a stash of personal reinforcers (wind up toys, bubbles, books, cause and effect toys) with them to keep things new and interesting for their learner. This is a great way to condition yourself as a reinforcer for a learner as they will look forward to seeing you (and your toys!)
4. Schedule of Reinforcement  Reinforcement plays a hugely significant role in the teaching paradigm. It is in reinforcement that we increase probability that new responses will occur again in similar situations. Because of this, attention must also be paid to intensity and frequency of reinforcement. This is part of the science behind ABA and should be given special consideration when planning your teaching protocol. Generally speaking, below are a few guidelines when determining schedule of reinforcement.
   • Continuous reinforcement (providing reinforcement for each correct response) should occur during the phase where a brand-new skill is being taught
   • Intermittent reinforcement (providing reinforcement on a variable schedule) should occur when maintaining a skill
5. Behaviorally define what a target skill should look like – By determining exactly what the teaching response needs to look like it will make it clear to all who the teach the skill when a correct response has occurred (and needs to be reinforced) OR when the learner has errored (and needs to be corrected). For example, “Wave bye-bye” can be defined as “Upon hearing the instruction to Wave bye-bye the student will raise forearm of right or left hand between torso and shoulders, with open palm facing instructor and wiggle fingers for a minimum of two seconds”.
6. Prompts  Prompts are supplemental supports that follow an instruction to lead to a desired outcome. When a prompted response is followed by positive reinforcement it increases the likelihood that this response will be repeated in the future. In order to make teaching interactions clean of practiced errors and confusion, a prompt is usually selected to be paired with the response until the response can be emitted independently and consistently. Some commonly used prompts are:
   • Physical (hand over hand physical help to perform the skill)
   • Gestural (modeling the response for the student to imitate or pointing in a direction to serve as a clue for the desired response)
   • Verbal (providing the full word or statement a student should repeat or providing a word or statement that will serve as a clue for the desired response)
   • Positional (placing items in closer proximity to the learner from others as a clue to which item they should select)
7. Determine how errors will be corrected  Error Correction is the process of showing a student the correct response after the emission of an erroneous response. E.g., If a student is asked to wave bye-bye and they clap their hands in error, the instructor will show them the correct response by most commonly physically prompting them to wave bye-bye according to the behavioral definition. This is often paired with a statement such as “this is wave bye-bye” and an opportunity to try again after the instruction is represented.
8. Repetition (or practice of a target skill)  Providing students with multiple opportunities to practice new skills is a crucial component to learning. By repeatedly practicing correct responses followed by positive reinforcement, new skills can be acquired.
9. Instruction – An instruction is a verbal direction given to provoke a specific response e.g., “Stand up” or “Wave bye-bye”. Instructions are also referred to as an Sd (discriminative stimulus)
10. How the skill will be generalized across novel situations, people, settings (Generalization Generalization refers to the idea that a skill taught under a specific set of circumstances can also occur under a similar set of circumstances without the need of being taught. For example, if a learner is taught to wave bye-bye in his classroom by his teacher using the instruction, “Wave bye-bye” and the student later emits the response of waving at home when his grandmother is leaving and his mom states, “Wave to grandma” this response is said to have generalized. Generalization of learned skills however, does not always occur naturally. It is a crucial component of teaching but often needs to be directly programmed and planned for. Ways to promote generalization include:
    • Using varied instructions for the same response (e.g., “Wave”, “Wave bye-bye”, “Wave good-bye”)
    • Using varied representations of materials (e.g., when teaching a student to label a “cup” use multiple representations of cups 2D, 3D, big, small, varied colors, clip-art cups, etc.)
    • Teaching responses in varied locations
    • Teaching same responses by novel people
    • Teaching responses in different ways (pointing to object in picture cards, finding in books, giving the object)
11. How to maintain the skill across time Maintaining a skill refers to the concept that a skill will continue to be demonstrated over time even after direct reinforcement has been terminated. When a skill is truly “mastered” it is believed that reinforcement is now occurring by the naturally occurring contingencies. However, it is not uncommon for previously learned skills to be forgotten if they are not practiced consistently. All skills that require teaching should be actively maintained. Although previously mastered skills do not require the same repetition that a new skill may require, it is still important to review “mastered skills” while teaching new concepts. Typically, when skills are in maintenance, you can practice them in looser teaching conditions since they have likely already passed the generalization phase of teaching. For example, when maintaining a skill such as counting you can maintain this skill while playing a game that requires counting such as “Sorry!” or “Hi Ho! Cherry-o” in addition to practicing rote counting.
12. Data Collection Applied Behavior Analysis is a data-driven science. Therefore, keeping track of responses is an essential component when using the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). It is where the analytical part of the science takes place. It is through this measure that we can determine if skills are being learned, what variables are affecting the acquisition of new skills and when teaching protocols need to be modified to promote effective learning. There are many types of data collection procedures used. Some of the most commonly used procedures are:
    
    • Percentage Recording-the ratio of correct responses divided by total number of opportunities presented
    • Permanent Product-a sample of work completed (often used when teaching fine motor activities such as writing, coloring or cutting)
    • Interval Recording-keeps track of frequency of a behavior occurring during a specified time frame
    • Event Recording-counts the overall frequency a behavior has occurred