Discrete Trial Therapy

Description of the Strategy

Discrete trial therapy is a specific form of teaching that places emphasis on the instructor providing a structure, specific context, and pacing to a teaching interaction. It requires an active response from the learner and thus is different from lecture-style instruction. It is discrete in that the various components that comprise a teaching-learning interaction are specified and choreographed into a systematic and replicable interaction. Related parameters for discrete trial procedures include massed versus spaced practice, level and type of prompting for response emission and error correction, reinforcement parameters (such as schedule, type, and amount), physical set-up of the learning environment, precise selection of learning materials/ stimuli, intertrial interval duration, response selection and criteria for reinforcement (shaping parameters), and response ...