Naturalistic Strategies

Naturalistic teaching strategies, also referred to as “milieu” teaching, involve planned episodes of brief adult-child interaction that take advantage of naturally occurring reinforcers in the course of ongoing activities and routines (Halle, Alpert, & Anderson, 1984). Naturalistic strategies were originally designed to promote generalization of communication skills from therapy settings to natural environments. However, these strategies have also proven effective across developmental domains for teaching new skills as well as improving existing ones. Five variations of naturalistic instruction include:

• Modeling
• Expansions
• Naturalistic time delay
• “Mand” modeling
• Incidental teaching

Naturalistic Strategy #1: Modeling

Definition: The concept of modeling (Bandura, 1965) as an instructional strategy is derived from research suggesting that typical children tend to imitate the behavior of children and adults who are significant to them, especially when therefore, such behavior is reinforced. One of the primary rationales for the inclusion movement, is that children with special needs will learn from the behavior of nondisabled peers (Peck & Cooke, 1983). For such learning to occur, children with disabilities must be aware of the behavior of their peers (Bailey & Wolery, 1992). Many young children with ADS demonstrate an interest in their peers and immediate or delayed imitation of individual or group behavior. The target behavior must, of course, be one the child is capable of imitating. Given these prerequisites, modeling has been used successfully with young children with disabilities to improve communication, motor, social and play skills.

Example: At snack time, a child who does not consistently use a spoon is seated across from a favorite peer or sibling who uses a spoon correctly. An adult serves tiny portions of pudding to each child. The child modeling spoon feeding is reinforced verbally and with offers of more pudding following correct use of the spoon.

Naturalistic Strategy #2: Expansions

Definition: An adult responds to a child’s verbal initiations with a verbal model that is slightly more grammatically complete than what the child was using, building on the child’s present level of communicative competency.

Example: For a child working on using action words, while looking at a favorite picture book, when child points and says, “Piggy!,” the adult replies, “Piggy eating!”

Naturalistic Strategy #3: Naturalistic Time Delay

Definition: During a familiar routine, an adult skips a step or pauses between steps and looks expectantly to the child for a set period of time (also called “wait time”). If the child initiates a response, the routine continues. If not, the adult models the expected behavior before the routine continues. A variation of this procedure, called “violation of expectancy” (Bailey & Wolery, 1992), involves the adult performing a step in the familiar routine that is out of sequence, incorrect, or incomplete. This strategy has been used to increase social interaction, communicative initiations, and independence.

Example # 1: Naturalistic Time Delay - While singing “This Old Man,” the adult pauses 3seconds after the phrase, “He played---?” to allow the child to respond with the appropriate number in sequence.

Example # 2: Violation of Expectancy - While helping a parent set the table for a family of three, a child is given three plates but only two sets of utensils.

Naturalistic Strategy #4: “Mand” Modeling

Definition: “Mands” are questions that cannot be answered with yes or no, or commands that do not elicit a specific response. Mand modeling involves brief exchanges in which the adult asks a question or makes a specific request that provides the child with an opportunity to use a target communication skill. If the child gives an appropriate communicative response, the adult responds with an expansion. If the child does not provide the desired communicative response, the adult models an appropriate verbal response and looks expectantly at the child for imitation. As with other naturalistic strategies, adult initiations should relate to the child’s focus of play and follow the child’s lead.

Example: A child working on using regular past-tense verbs is highly engaged with filling and dumping cornmeal at the sand table. The teacher enters and begins playing beside the child, imitating filling and pouring cornmeal from a pitcher. The teacher provides a mand: “What did you do with your cornmeal?” She looks expectantly at the child for 3 seconds, then models a response, “You poured it all out.” After a couple of minutes, the teacher catches the child’s attention and gives a second mand: “What did I do with my corn meal?” The child responds, “poured it out!” The teacher expands: “I poured it out!” In the next few minutes, the sequence is repeated with mands for the child to respond to using “dumped,” “stirred,” and “shared.”

Naturalistic Strategy #5: Incidental Teaching

Definition: Incidental teaching is an instructional strategy in which the adult uses child initiations during ongoing activities as opportunities to respond with either a model or a request for more elaborate behavior. Incidental teaching was first developed as a way to promote generalization of communication skills from therapy to classroom settings (Hart & Risley, 1968), but it has since proven effective in teaching a broad range of skills to children with a variety of disabilities (Kaiser, Yoder, & Keetz, 1992). (For more in depth information and resources regarding incidental teaching, please refer to lesson "Incidental Teaching" in Academic Interventions module or click here)

Example: An adult joins a child engaged with a barn, farm animals, and farm equipment. The goal is for the child to demonstrate increasingly complex play behaviors. The adult imitates the child lining up farm machinery. When all machinery has been lined up, the child responds with an initiation by handing the adult a farm animal. The adult places the animal in a wagon and looks expectantly at the child, who gives the adult another animal. The adult says, “Put the horse in the wagon.” If the child complies , the adult praises the child, and play continues. If the child does not respond, the adult models the desired behavior and then waits for the next child initiation to occur. In this manner, the adult guides the child through combining two or more objects in a play scheme.