Discrete Trial Training (DTT)

William has DTT every morning from 8:30 AM for 20 minutes.  I heard the teacher and staffs saying the word DTT all the time, “William, let’s go to DTT” but never knew the meaning of it so today I asked Ms. Vanessa what it means.  She saids it’s Discrete Trial Training.

So i’m looking up this word in internet and starting to understand more about this technique.

http://www.educateautism.com/applied-behaviour-analysis/discrete-trial-training.html

“Discrete Trial Training is one of the most important instructional methods for children with autism”
– Smith (2001, p.86)

Hopefully William is learning from DTT.  William has made lots of progress over the past few months; I’m not sure it’s because he’s learning from school or from ABA sessions at home, which is 5 days a week from 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM (Mon-Fri).

Now he likes to sing Happy Birthday, ABC  and Twinkle Little star songs.  He knows to request for “More Time” when he wants to play with toys that he likes.  He uses the word “Open” a lot when requests to open the door or candy packets.  He learns to say in a complete sentence “I want iPad”.  And he’s toilet training at home.

And importantly he responds to his name by looking up; which he never did before.

Cough Again?

Wednesday Morning 8:30 AM.  I dropped William off at his classroom; he put his backpack in his slot and ran to the play area as usual while I was talking to Ms. Vanessa for a few minutes.  When I looked over to the play area, I saw William lying on the floor with his face up and crying; his hands were trying to wipe off tears!  Not sure what happened but when I picked him up, he coughed several times and looked like he was feeling nauseous.  So Ms. Vanessa called the school nurse; Mrs. Krastine came by a few minutes later.  She listened to William’s heart, looked into his ears and said everything is good.

So I let him stay at the school; mainly because I know for sure he’s fine; maybe when he felt on the floor something got into his mouth that caused his cough.  He was totally fine at him when I prepared him to school in the morning.  He was sleepy but not sick.

Hopefully his day goes well today!