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DTI: What's All the Fuss

​​There seems to be much controversy about the use of DTI...and strangely, its use is often discouraged as more "naturalistic" approaches are encouraged. But the concerns may be misplaced and are more a function of myth and misunderstanding. First, it needs to be said that DTI is not an intervention or an "approach" (EIBI, DIR, TEACH are interventions or approaches). There is no such thing as "DTI Intervention or a DTI approach"... One doesn't "do" DTI, one uses it. It is a tool, a teaching method, like many others on which we rely in our teaching. Like any tool, we learn how to use it and when it's called for. And when it comes to teaching a child a language, effective intervention will require a level of specificity that only DTI can provide. 

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Lund summarizes:

“EIBI for children with autism is a complex approach based on concepts and principles of applied behavior analysis. Discrete trial instruction is one of many instructional methods that can be used in EIBI. Its effectiveness depends on factors such as quality of curriculum development (competency of curriculum designer), application of complimentary instructional methods and ongoing analysis and adjustments. As with any method, DTI has limitations, but a careful analysis reveals that much of the criticism of DTI may be due to inadequate curriculum development and inappropriate use rather than to the method itself”. (For more on this in detail, see Lund, in Autism Encyclopedia: The Complete Guide to Autism Spectrum Disorders)

 

DTI needs to be a component in of every clinicians 'tool box'. Teaching a language requires meticulous attention to detail, a thorough knowledge of all the elements that need to be in place, what it takes to get them in place, how to engineer disparate constituent linguistic abilities so that greater linguistic complexity develops, and how to analyze things when things are not moving so well. Again, clinicians will need to have proficiencies in the use of DTI in order to meet these requirements.

 

Additionally, children need to learn the rudiments and constituents of a language. Those constituents need to be engineered for use across innumerable circumstances across a multitude of activities and transactions. It is our job to be able to identify under which circumstances which linguistic feats are required. Knowing when and how to introduce such activity,  which concepts can and should be uploaded into those activities, and knowing when and how, within those activities new concepts can and should be introduced. This is not simply a matter of teaching mands, tacts and intraverbals.

 

Thoughtfully and thoroughly crafted intervention employs a 'teach to build-engineering' approach vs. a 'teach and hope' approach. Therefore, things are taught for a reason and not simply so that they can be checked off as 'done' or 'mastered' and thrown into mastered or maintenance lists. "Mastery" is most often progressive. Things are 'matered' when they are effortlessly put to use within a linguistic practice. In order to eventually attain mastery, the use of DTI will be necessary along the way. 

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