Incidental Teaching
Incidental Teaching
©2005 The New England Center for Children, Inc. (NECC); All Rights Reserved; No portion of this work is to be reproduced or distributed without the express written permission of NECC.
The New England Center for Children
- Patricia Krantz
4 features of Incidental Teaching
1. Environment is arranged to set the occasion
for a student response
2. Teacher WAITS for student to initiate a
response (observe closely-it may be subtle)
3. Higher level response is prompted
4. Teacher reinforces the student’s response
(naturally occurring consequence-student gets
what she asked for)
Environmental Arrangement
Discrete Trial: Incidental Teaching:
Environment & stimuli Environment & stimuli are
are chosen by the arranged to occasion
teacher to teach a target skill
specific skill
Teacher Behavior
Early: “hug”
Intermediate: “I want hug”
Advanced: “Can I have a hug?”
Example: Request Missing Items
Target language:
Early: “Item name”
Intermediate: “I want X” or “I want (verb)
X”
Advanced: “Where is X?”
Example: Requesting Help
Contexts:
What student does:
Looks at teacher and whines, points, hands object to
teacher
Target Language
Early: “Help”
Intermediate: “I need help”
Advanced: “I need help with X”
Waiting…a difficult step
Using verbal prompts such as “What do you
want?” changes the activity to teacher directed
responding for the student (a discrete trial)