RBT Exam Revision Course: Skill Acquisition

C-01: Identify the Essential Components of a Written Skill Acquisition Plan

The first step in creating a skill acquisition plan is to choose a skill to target. This skill must be socially significant, meaning:

• ✔ It helps the individual become more independent
• ✔ It is age-appropriate
• ✔ It improves quality of life

A skill acquisition plan must include:

• Teaching procedure (e.g., DTT, chaining, naturalistic teaching)
• Materials used
• Mastery criteria (what proficiency looks like)
• Prompting Strategies (if applicable)
• Reinforcement strategies
• Error correction procedures
• Data collection procedures
• Plan for generalization & maintenance

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C-02: Preparing for the Session as Required by the Skill Acquisition Plan

1. Review the Skill Acquisition Plan
   ✔ Before starting the session, thoroughly review the Skill Acquisition Plan to ensure clarity on objectives and procedures. You should review all plans before the beginning of a session. It may also be useful to refresh your knowledge before running a particular skills-teaching intervention.
2. Identify and Prioritize Targets
   ✔ Check which targets need to be run urgently, such as:
   • Targets not run the previous session
   • Time-sensitive skills (e.g., related to time of day, or linked to external deadlines)
   • Skills requiring immediate generalization or fluency building
   ✔ Ensure that a balanced range of targets is addressed to prevent over-focusing on specific skills while neglecting others, and/or boring your client.
3. Ensure Materials are Ready
   ✔ Gather and confirm that all required materials are accessible, including:
   • Technology & Tools: Tablets, timers, tally counters
   • Teaching Aids: Flashcards, toys, visual schedules
   • Safety Equipment: Protective gear (if applicable)
4. Align with the Behaviour Support Plan
   ✔ Review the Behaviour Support Plan (BSP) to ensure interventions are consistent with the individual’s behaviour strategies and you understand how to run both concurrently.
   ✔ Consider:
   • Proactive strategies to reduce behaviours that challenge
   • Response strategies to maintain consistency across skill acquisition and behaviour support
   • Reinforcement strategies used across both plans
5. Note Target Prompt Levels
   ✔ Identify and prepare for the current prompt levels specified in the plan to ensure consistency.
6. Clarify Error Correction Procedures
   ✔ Review the error correction strategies to ensure accurate and consistent application.
7. Availability of Reinforcers
   ✔ Confirm that reinforcers are ready and appropriately restricted to maintain effectiveness.
   ✔ While controlling access, ensure that restrictions respect the individual’s rights and are ethically justified.
8. Competence & Supervision
   ✔ If a skill teaching intervention is beyond your level of competence, seek supervisory guidance. If there is a concern about competence and scope that relates to ethics or behaviours that challenge, seek out this guidance immediately.

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C-03: Use Contingencies of Reinforcement

Reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again. A stimulus is only a reinforcer if it actually strengthens behavior.

Example:
If a child cleans their room more often after receiving screen time, then screen time is a reinforcer.
If the child cleans their room less, then screen time may actually be a punisher, not a reinforcer.

Two Types of Reinforcement:

• Unconditioned (Primary) – Does not require learning (e.g., food, water, warmth)
• Conditioned (Secondary) – Learned reinforcers (e.g., money, praise, tokens)

Reinforcement Schedules:

• Continuous Reinforcement (CRF) – Every instance of behavior is reinforced
• Intermittent Reinforcement (INT) – Only some responses are reinforced
• Fixed Ratio (FR) – Reinforcement after a set number of responses
• Variable Ratio (VR) – Reinforcement after a variable number of responses
• Fixed Interval (FI) – Reinforcement after a fixed time period
• Variable Interval (VI) – Reinforcement after a variable time period

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C-04: Implement Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) Procedures

Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) is a structured method that breaks down complex skills into small, manageable steps.

DTT Procedure:

1. Present a task/instruction (e.g., “Touch your nose.”) Prompt if scripted.
2. Wait for a response
3. Reinforce correct responses (e.g., praise, treat)
4. If incorrect, prompt & repeat

✔ DTT is structured & systematic, making it easy to track progress and adjust teaching as needed.

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C-05: Implement Naturalistic ABA Teaching Procedures

Naturalistic ABA Teaching is more flexible than DTT, focusing on real-life situations to promote meaningful learning.

Key Features:

• Skills taught in natural settings (home, school, community)
• Reinforcement provided naturally (not contrived)

Example: If a client is learning to request a drink:

• ❌ DTT Approach: “Copy me” → Prompt → Reinforce
• ✅ Naturalistic Approach: During playtime model a “fun” response; if the learner attempts to copy you, they receive reinforcement (e.g., natural consequence or social praise)

Common Naturalistic Teaching Methods:

• Incidental Teaching
• Natural Environment Teaching (NET)
• Pivotal Response Training (PRT)
• Reciprocal Imitation Training (RIT)

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C-06: Implement Task Analysis and Chaining Procedures

Task Analysis breaks down complex skills into small, teachable steps. This is crucial for multi-step skills like dressing, washing hands, or cooking.

Types of Chaining:

• Forward Chaining – Teach the first step first, then progress sequentially.
• Backward Chaining – Teach the last step first, working backward (ensures success).
• Total Task Chaining – Teach all steps at once with prompts as needed.

Example (Handwashing Task Analysis):

• ✔ Turn on water
• ✔ Wet hands
• ✔ Apply soap
• ✔ Rub hands together
• ✔ Rinse
• ✔ Dry hands

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C-07: Implement Discrimination Training

Discrimination training teaches a client to behave differently depending on physical and social stimuli by reinforcing behaviour in the presence of one stimulus and not in the presence of another.

Example:
A client is taught to touch a green card from a set of three (green, red, and blue) when given the instruction “Find the Green Card.”
The instruction (“Find the Green Card”) is the Discriminative Stimulus (SD) → signals reinforcement is available for choosing green.
If the client picks the red or blue card, no reinforcement is provided.

Real-World Example: Traffic Lights
✔ Green Light → Means “Go” (reinforced by reaching the destination).
✔ Red Light → Means “Stop” (reinforced by avoiding an accident).

Uses of Discrimination Training:

• Basic skills: Discriminating animals, identifying colours, differentiating shapes
• Complex skills: Recognising medical patterns in brain scans

Key Considerations:

• ✅ Change only one characteristic at a time during initial teaching.
• 🔹 Example: When teaching letters, use the same colour and size to prevent confusion.

Understanding SD vs. S-delta (SΔ):

• Discriminative Stimulus (SD): Signals that reinforcement is available.
• S-delta (SΔ): Signals that reinforcement is not available.

Example:
If a therapist presents four cards (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4) and says “Point to number 1”:
✔ The instruction is the SD → It signals that reinforcement is available for pointing to card 1.
❌ The instruction is also an SΔ → It signals that reinforcement is not available for choosing other numbers.

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C-08: Implement Stimulus Control Transfer Procedures

Stimulus control transfer procedures help a learner respond to the correct stimulus independently. The goal is to move from prompted responses to natural, unprompted responses.

Key Strategies:

• Differential Reinforcement: Reinforce the desired behaviour only when the correct (target) stimulus is present.
• Stimulus Fading: Gradually change or reduce the features of a prompt or stimulus so that the learner comes to respond to the natural SD.
• Prompting and Fading: Use temporary prompts (verbal, gestural, physical), then systematically reduce them until the response occurs independently.

Example:
When teaching a child to say “hello” when someone enters the room, a prompt might initially be a verbal cue (“Say hello!”). Over time, the verbal cue is faded, and reinforcement is provided when the child spontaneously greets the person without prompting.

Prompt dependency can occur if prompts are not faded properly. The aim is always to transfer stimulus control from the prompt to the naturally occurring environmental cues.

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C-09: Implement Prompt and Prompt Fading Procedures

Prompts are additional stimuli used to increase the likelihood of a correct response. They are temporary and should be systematically faded to promote independent responding.

Types of Prompts:

• Stimulus Prompts: Changes to the materials or SD to highlight the correct response (e.g., enlarging the correct answer).
• Response Prompts: Help provided to the learner to evoke the correct response (e.g., physical, verbal, or gestural assistance).

Stimulus Prompting Categories:

• Within-Stimulus Prompting: Modifying the relevant features of the SD itself (e.g., using a larger or brighter object).
• Extra-Stimulus Prompting: Adding cues to the environment to help guide the response (e.g., placing a sticker next to the correct choice).

Prompt Fading Procedures:

• Most-to-Least Prompting (MTL): Start with full assistance (e.g., physical guidance), then gradually reduce to less intrusive prompts.
• Least-to-Most Prompting (LTM): Start with minimal prompts (e.g., a gesture), then increase as needed if the learner does not respond correctly.
• Graduated Fading: Slowly and systematically reduce the prompt intensity over time.

Example:
When teaching a learner to brush their teeth, you may begin with hand-over-hand guidance (physical prompt), then move to gestural prompts, and finally to no prompts as the learner becomes more independent.

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C-10: Implement Generalization and Maintenance Procedures

Generalization refers to the learner’s ability to apply a learned skill in new environments, with different people, or across various stimuli.

Types of Generalization:

• Stimulus Generalization: The skill is used in response to different but similar stimuli (e.g., saying “dog” when seeing different breeds).
• Response Generalization: The learner uses a different but appropriate response for the same situation (e.g., waving instead of saying “hello”).

Maintenance refers to the continued use of a skill over time, even after teaching has stopped.

Strategies to Promote Generalization and Maintenance:

• Teach across people, settings, and materials
• Use multiple examples of stimuli and instructions
• Reinforce occurrences of the skill in natural environments
• Vary the teaching conditions (e.g., different times, rooms, and contexts)
• Thinning reinforcement schedules over time (e.g., move from FR1 to VR3 or VR5)
• Use naturally occurring reinforcers
• Teach multiple response forms when appropriate

Example:
If a learner is taught to ask for help by saying “Can I get some help?” during a therapy session, they should also be able to request help at home, in school, and with other people, using similar or functionally equivalent phrases.

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C-11: Implement Shaping Procedures

Shaping is a procedure used to teach new behaviors by reinforcing successive approximations toward the target behavior.

Steps in Shaping:

1. Define the terminal (final) behavior
2. Identify the learner’s current ability or starting point
3. Reinforce closer and closer approximations to the target behavior
4. Use differential reinforcement (reinforce only the responses that are closer to the goal)
5. Fade reinforcement for earlier approximations as progress is made

Example:
Teaching a child to say “juice”:

• Reinforce “juh” → then “joo” → then “juice”
• Each approximation is reinforced only until a closer one is acquired

Tips:

• Go at the learner’s pace
• Do not stay too long at one approximation
• Avoid reinforcing approximations once the next step is reached
• Keep records to track progress

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C-12: Implement Token Economy Procedures

A token economy is a reinforcement system where learners earn tokens for engaging in target behaviours and later exchange those tokens for backup reinforcers.

Key Components:

• Tokens: Generalised conditioned reinforcers (e.g. stickers, points, stars, chips)
• Target Behaviours: Clearly defined behaviours that will be reinforced
• Backup Reinforcers: Items or activities the learner can “buy” with tokens (e.g. snacks, toys, extra break time)
• Exchange Schedule: Rules for how many tokens are required to access each backup reinforcer

Benefits of Token Economies:

• Bridge delay between behaviour and reinforcement
• Allow for consistent reinforcement across multiple behaviours or settings
• Encourage self-monitoring and independence
• Scalable and customisable

Example:
A learner earns one token each time they complete a maths problem. At the end of the session, they exchange five tokens for five minutes of iPad time.

Tips:

• Ensure the token itself is neutral (not too reinforcing on its own)
• Clearly define behaviours and rules for earning/spending tokens
• Fade the token system over time as natural reinforcement takes over

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