Nancy Dib and Peter Sturmey (2007).
Reducing student stereotypy by improving teachers’ implementation of discrete-trial teaching.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
40, 339-343.
Discrete-trial teaching is an instructional method commonly used to teach social and academic
skills to children with an autism spectrum disorder. The purpose of the current study was to
evaluate the indirect effects of discrete-trial teaching on 3 students’ stereotypy. Instructions,
feedback, modeling, and rehearsal were used to improve 3 teaching aides’ implementation of
discrete-trial teaching in a private school for children with autism. Improvements in accurate
teaching were accompanied by systematic decreases in students’ levels of stereotypy.
DESCRIPTORS: autism, children, discrete-trial teaching, staff training, teacher training, stereotypy