Session 6: Verbal Behavior and Discrete Trial Teaching

Communication is often difficult for students with ASD. Learn how to impove your students' communication skills through the teaching of verbal operants. This session introduces participants to Verbal Behavior, a behavorist view of communication based on B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior (1957), a landmark analysis in the study of language. Registrants will gain an understanding of the basic verbal operants and how to facilitate their development to improve communication. Additionally, this session provides an overview of Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) as used in 1:1 or small group sessions with students with ASD. The components of a discrete trial are reviewed as well as prompting, error correction, mastery criteria, generalization, and data collection. Various skills that are commonly taught through DTT are introduced and practiced.