Teaching loosely is a term that most educators are
probably familiar with, but it’s a concept that can also be very helpful to ABA
therapists. Teaching loosely is a way of intentionally teaching content to
promote generalization for the learner. Instead of the typical way of teaching
where a child learns a skill and then learns to generalize the skill and
maintain it across environments, with teaching loosely generalization is an
integral part of the lesson right from the start. Teaching loosely is about
randomly and intentionally varying parts of your teaching, including materials,
tone of voice, words, facial expressions, seating, room/location, time of day,
etc.
Generalization
is so important! If you can teach a child or student to say “Hi” to you, but
they never greet peers or unknown adults then what is the point of that? How
does the skill of saying “Hi” benefit that child? Teaching Autistic individuals should never happen within a vacuum. The skills learned should be intentionally
applied across settings and individuals, to help the individual interact
meaningfully with their environment.
There are many ways to generalize, including across time, across settings, and across
stimuli.
- Time- Michael learned to read 15 sight words last October. Today he can still easily read those 15 sight words.
- Settings- Michael learned to read 15 sight words off index cards in Mrs. McDougal’s 1st grade classroom. Michael can still read those 15 sight words off an index card regardless of the environment (at home, on the playground, during an ABA therapy session, etc.).
- Behaviors- Michael learned to read 15 three letter sight words. Now Michael is easily reading other sight words that have three and sometimes four letters, and he has started showing an interest in storybooks.
When initially
teaching a skill using DTT or VB methodology, it is important to remove
unnecessary stimuli, use a clear and simple SD, provide strong reinforcement
quickly, and minimize error. What can happen in an ABA program is the
instructor or therapist doesn’t fade this intensive teaching style, and doesn’t
remember to plan for generalization.
When teaching students with Autism, it is imperative to help the child
generalize the material they have learned. If a child is taught to say the word
“Mommy” because a therapist holds up a photo of his mother, that doesn’t mean
the child will say “Mommy” when his mother walks into the room. Parents often
ask me why their child doesn’t display skills outside of the therapy room, or
why will they only do XYZ skill with the therapist. The reason why is usually a
failure to teach for generalization.
Teaching
loosely takes work and planning, and forethought. It would be pretty difficult
to properly plan for generalization without a clear terminal goal. Teachers or
ABA therapists often make long term and short term goals, but not a terminal
goal. A terminal goal answers the question “What
do I want it to ultimately look like when the student has mastered this skill”.
A long term goal might be to get a child to sit quietly at their desk during
transitions, instead of bothering peers, walking around the classroom, or
engaging in stims. A terminal goal would be much broader than that, such as
expecting the child to choose an appropriate activity to engage in during down
time or transitions that doesn’t require adult help. For example, writing
sentences in a journal book, reading quietly, or drawing a picture.
As a
professional, any skill that you teach to a client should be done
with a terminal goal in mind. Think bigger than teaching a child to talk, toilet training a client, or reducing aggression. Aim for helping that individual become as
independent, successful, and productive as they can in a variety of real-world environments.
If you are
wondering if your student or client may need more generalization intentionally
embedded into instruction, ask yourself: If you removed yourself and someone
else taught the student, would learning suffer? If you change the
reinforcement, does learning suffer? If you move to a new classroom/setting,
does learning suffer? If you change your wording (“Come here” vs. “Hey, stand
by me”) does learning suffer? If you find yourself answering yes to these
questions, it’s likely there isn’t enough generalization of skills happening.
Cooper, Heron,
& Heward have some amazing tips and recommendations for teaching loosely.
These strategies would be helpful in a classroom setting, as well as in any
quality ABA program (I have implemented many of these strategies over the
years, and they are great at promoting generalization):
Choose behaviors to
change that will contact reinforcement in the natural environment (such as
praise, positive feedback or attention, social approval, etc).
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When writing programs
or creating goals, think of all situations/settings where the behavior should
and should NOT occur.
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Teach sufficient
examples (don’t just use one photo of “bird”. Use multiple photos, a video
clip, and a bird stuffed animal).
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Use 1 or more
teachers (this is why most ABA programs use 2-3 therapists per case).
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Teach from a variety
of positions (do you always sit next to the child?? Switch it up!).
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Regularly and
consistently do “maintenance checks”, where you bring out old material and
make sure the child can still perform the skill.
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Use an intermittent
schedule of reinforcement (start to thin the reinforcement schedule so the
student isn’t sure exactly when reinforcement will be delivered).
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Ask other people to
help you reinforce the targeted behavior(s).
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Vary the smells,
sounds, and decorations in the training environment (for Autistic clients,
they are absolutely learning not just you but also the environment).
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Teach at various
times of day.
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*Recommended
Resources:
Lots of
specific tips about generalizing skills and concepts- From A to Z: Teaching Skills to Children with Autism by Tameika
Meadows
The “White”
Book- Applied Behavior Analysis by
Cooper, Heron, & Heward
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