The Skill Acquisition domain (Section B) is the largest section of the RBT Task List, covering how RBTs teach new skills to clients. This includes understanding different teaching procedures, prompting strategies, reinforcement, and how to implement behavior-analytic programs effectively.
Teaching Procedures
Discrete Trial Training (DTT)
DTT is a structured, therapist-led teaching method that breaks skills into small, isolated components. Each trial has three parts:
- Antecedent (SD): The instruction or cue given
- Behavior: The learner's response
- Consequence: Reinforcement for correct responses or error correction for incorrect ones
Trials are separated by a brief inter-trial interval (ITI).
Naturalistic Teaching / Natural Environment Training (NET)
NET occurs in the learner's natural environment and follows the child's motivation and interests. Unlike DTT, the learner often initiates interactions, and teaching occurs throughout everyday activities.
Prompting
Prompts are supplementary cues that help a learner perform a correct response. The goal is always to fade prompts so the learner responds independently.
Types of Prompts (Most to Least Intrusive)
- Full Physical: Hand-over-hand guidance
- Partial Physical: Light touch or nudge
- Model: Demonstrating the correct response
- Gestural: Pointing, nodding, or looking at the correct answer
- Verbal: Providing a spoken cue or hint
- Visual: Pictures, written words, or other visual cues
Prompt Fading
Prompt fading systematically reduces assistance to promote independence:
- Most-to-Least (MTL): Start with the most intrusive prompt and fade to less intrusive ones. Good for new or difficult skills.
- Least-to-Most (LTM): Start with no prompt or minimal assistance and increase only if needed. Good for building independence.
- Time Delay: Gradually increase the wait time between the SD and the prompt, giving the learner more time to respond independently.
Reinforcement
Positive Reinforcement
Adding a stimulus after a behavior that increases the future likelihood of that behavior. The stimulus is typically something the learner enjoys or desires.
Negative Reinforcement
Removing an aversive stimulus after a behavior that increases the future likelihood of that behavior.
Schedules of Reinforcement
- Continuous (CRF): Reinforce every correct response — best for teaching new skills
- Intermittent: Reinforce some correct responses — best for maintaining learned skills
- Fixed Ratio (FR): Reinforce after a set number of responses
- Variable Ratio (VR): Reinforce after an unpredictable number of responses — produces the highest, steadiest rates
- Fixed Interval (FI): Reinforce the first response after a set time period
- Variable Interval (VI): Reinforce after variable time periods
Shaping
Shaping involves reinforcing successive approximations toward a target behavior. You reinforce responses that are progressively closer to the desired behavior while no longer reinforcing earlier approximations.
Chaining
Chaining links individual behaviors together into a complex sequence using a task analysis.
- Forward Chaining: Teach the first step and prompt through the rest, then teach steps 1+2, etc.
- Backward Chaining: Prompt through all steps except the last one, which the learner completes independently. Then teach the last 2, etc.
- Total Task Chaining: The learner attempts every step every time, with prompts as needed.
Generalization and Maintenance
- Generalization: The ability to perform a skill across different people, settings, stimuli, or times
- Maintenance: Continuing to perform a skill over time after training has ended
Key Terms Quick Reference
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| DTT | Structured teaching with SD → Response → Consequence |
| NET | Teaching in natural settings following learner motivation |
| Prompt | Supplementary cue to evoke a correct response |
| Most-to-Least | Fading from most intrusive to least intrusive prompts |
| Least-to-Most | Starting with minimal help, increasing as needed |
| Time Delay | Increasing wait time between SD and prompt |
| Positive Reinforcement | Adding a stimulus to increase behavior |
| Negative Reinforcement | Removing a stimulus to increase behavior |
| Shaping | Reinforcing successive approximations |
| Task Analysis | Breaking a complex skill into individual steps |
| Forward Chaining | Teaching steps in order from first to last |
| Backward Chaining | Teaching the last step first, working backwards |
🎯 Exam Tips for This Domain
- Both positive and negative reinforcement increase behavior — don't confuse negative reinforcement with punishment.
- CRF is for acquisition; intermittent schedules are for maintenance.
- VR schedules produce the highest, most consistent response rates.
- Know the prompt hierarchy from most to least intrusive.
- NET promotes generalization better than DTT.
Test Your Knowledge
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