welcome to the autism intervention training video series in this video we will review four basic steps used in incidental teaching incidental teaching is a method of instruction that makes use of opportunities that arise in a child's daily life to create a teaching moment however we don't just wait for those opportunities to happen successful incidental teaching requires careful pre-planning and structuring of the environment there are four main steps in incidental teaching create an engaging setting wait for the child to initiate prompt the child for a fuller request provide the desired outcome the first step is to create an engaging setting which will tempt the child into initiating an interaction for example you might place favorite toys out of reach on high shelves or in transparent containers that the child cannot open you might give only small portions of a favorite snack or engage in sabotage such as taking the batteries out of a toy or unplugging the TV so that the child cannot operate them without your help during daily self-care activities such as dressing or brushing teeth you might wait for requests for help before offering it the second step in incidental teaching is to wait for the child to initiate an interaction for example if you have placed toys or food out of reach before giving the toy or desired food to the child wait for the child to request the item let's do I want Apple you can have it if you have set up a situation where the child needs help wait for the child to request help rather than anticipating the child's needs should we do oh oh we should the box the third step is to prompt the child for a fuller request at this moment the child is highly engaged with the therapist and is self-motivated to succeed this makes it a powerful teaching moment if I'm areas now the therapist can slowly up the ante each time the child initiates a request this way the therapist can teach the child to use increasingly sophisticated methods of communication for example if the child is asking for bubbles you might first accept the sign for bubbles later you might get the child to sign for more bubbles later still you might get the child to say more bubbles well he makes the signs the final step in incidental teaching is to provide the desired outcome once the child has followed your prompt and made a strong effort to provide a more elaborate request you then give the child what he or she is requesting that's when you provide the desired outcome try to do so in a way that maximizes your incidental teaching opportunities for example if the child is asking for some candy give the child one and then wait for him or her to request another if the child has asked for help with his or her shoes help the child with one shoe and then wait for the child to initiate and ask for help with the second this gives you more chances to prompt the child towards more elaborate responses in summary incidental teaching involves capitalizing on teaching moments that arise during the child's day by creating an engaging setting waiting for the child to initiate communication prompting the child for a fuller more elaborate and providing the desired outcome after the child has initiated communication incidental teaching can be highly effective for teaching children to initiate communication because it capitalizes on the child's self motivation