DTT: A Piece of the ABA Pie

Posted by Natalie, MA, Special Educator

Now that your mouth is watering with an image of pie, let me take you back to when I first heard this analogy. In graduate school, I took a course on curriculum and instruction for students with disabilities. My professor, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) was always telling us how the principles of ABA were beneficial for her students, and how important research-based interventions such as ABA are in all instruction (special education and general education alike). ABA was increasing in popularity as people learned more about the improvements students made, and with this increasing popularity came many misconceptions and misinformation. One such piece of information was that ABA is synonymous with DTT, or Discrete Trial Teaching. To this, my BCBA professor would say, "DTT is NOT ABA; it is a piece of the ABA pie!" You also may have read about this idea in my colleague Hiroe's post, "What is ABA?" She references that Discrete Trial Teaching is an effective teaching method utilized in many ABA programs, but that ABA is not wholly DTT. So what is the Discrete Trial Teaching thing all about?

Let's break it down DTT Style:


Discrete is an adjective describing something as individually separate, distinct, or isolated.

Trial in the educator's perspective refers to a test or evaluation of a student's performance.

Teaching refers to the methodology of instruction.

When put together, we understand Discrete Trial Teaching to mean a methodology of instruction in which skills are broken down into individually separate, distinct, or isolated steps that are taught in specified learning trials, as was done above in defining it. The learning trials are highly structured and teacher-directed, with clear and concise instructions to elicit target behavior responses from the student. Teachers provide reinforcement upon child's correct response (refer to Ashley and Peri's post for more information on reinforcement, "Modifying Behavior: The Process") to increase the likelihood that the child will perform the target step again. Data is recorded for each trial to monitor progress and effectiveness of the method of instruction.

DTT style teaching is purposely formulaic, both for the therapist and for the student. (1) The therapist provides an instruction (verbally or nonverbally), (2) the child engages in a behavioral response, (3) the therapist provides reinforcement for the behavior. This 1-2-3 formula is repeated for various learning trials to teach varying skills. The intention is that the child is provided with concrete instructions broken down into simple terms; the child is provided with prompts from the therapist to increase the accuracy of his/her response; the child is provided with reinforcement, or things that s/he enjoys as a reward for engaging in the target behavior, or doing what the therapist asked him/her to do. Then, the child gets a break. And here is where the misconceptions and misinformation erupt.

Yes, the instruction is formulaic, and yes, some ABA therapists look stone-hearted and stony faced when providing this type of instruction. But this is NOT what ABA is about. In my previous post, I mentioned the importance of pairing (ABA Drill Sergeants: ABOUT FACE!). An effective ABA therapist builds a relationship with her student and pairs herself and her instruction as enjoyable and even desirable for the student. When done effectively, the child wants to attend to our instruction and look at us before we give an instruction, eliminating the harsh, "Look at me! Look at me!" drills used by many ineffective and outdated therapists. Teaching doesn't just occur at a table; we teach in every setting, in every environment, to ensure that the student truly understands the skill. We throw a party when a child demonstrates a skill independently, or with increasing independence. We don't just hand over a chip and say, "Good job doing ______." We are a part of the trial AND a part of the reinforcement. We are a part of the breaks, too, because we're not just there to teach the child to pretend to feed a baby. We are there to teach the child that playing with others, interacting with others, and looking at others is enjoyable! We are there to teach the child that s/he can learn to play, and s/he can do things independently.

Now, let me stress again that DTT is a style of teaching, and is not right for every student. Effective ABA therapists choose DTT as a preferred method of instruction after observing and analyzing a child's behavior and learning style. It is an ABA therapist's job to pinpoint challenges and select the appropriate teaching method to decrease the gap created by learning deficits. DTT style teaching is utilized for students who require direct instruction, minimal distractions, and who are learning basic foundation skills. For example, this is a student who is learning to learn. This is a student who cannot yet learn effectively in a group setting, or naturally through play. So, we teach basic imitation skills, eye contact, basic play skills, and simple instructions in a controlled setting with limited distractions. At the child's rate, prompts are faded away to increase the child's independence, reinforcement is faded away to increase the child's independence, and the therapist is faded away to increase the child's independence. Our goal, then, is not to have the child require DTT style teaching. On the contrary, ABA therapists who utilize this teaching method do so with the intent of it being temporary, until the child learns the basic skills to use them through play, or in a group, as a typical child does. More to the point, ABA therapists take a piece of the ABA Pie in DTT, until the child is ready for his next piece of ABA Pie--Natural Environment Teaching. Who's ready for more pie?