Pivotal Response Teaching in the Classroom Setting

ABSTRACT

Pivotal response teaching (PRT) is an empirically supported naturalistic behavioral intervention proven to be efficacious in the education of children with autism. This intervention involves loosely structured learning environments, teaching during ongoing interactions between student and teacher, child initiation of teaching episodes, child choice of teaching activities or materials, prompting, providing reinforcers directly related to the child's behavior, and providing reinforcement for child goal-directed attempts to respond. PRT has been widely studied and has been effective in increasing verbal communication, joint attention, play skills, peer social interactions, and homework skills. Although the use of PRT in classroom settings has not yet been empirically studied, work is underway to develop PRT-based procedures for such settings. The authors discuss barriers to PRT translation to classroom settings and strategies for improving such implementation.

KEYWORDS:

• behavioral intervention
• children with autism
• pivotal response teaching