Natural Environment Training
NET
Natural Environment Training is a teaching procedure used in ABA and focuses on skills that occur in day to day activities including social , play, and adaptive routines. The opportunities to practice these skills may occur naturally or contrived by others.
NET utilizes the following components:
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Learner Initiation. Allowing the learner to guide the session, with a focus on skills that are relevant to their life.
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Reinforcement of a variety of responses. (For example, the learner says 'Hi' or 'Hey' in response to a greeting, not only teaching one form.
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Avoidance of teacher using 'no' or incorrect. The teacher will reinforce any attempt and shape the response into the desired outcome.
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Utilizes prompting and prompt fading systematically.
Some benefits of NET include:
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Maintenance and generalization of skills to occur with little effort on the caregivers or professionals.
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Focus on an individual's natural interests and desires, which can allow reinforcement to occur with little programming.
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Can target multiple skills with in one activity. The more practice an individual can have with a skill may decrease the time required to master a skill.
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Prompting may be easier to fade, due to the natural structure of the lesson.
Some NET targets may be difficult to contrive naturally and need to be accounted for when programming. NET lessons are often incorporated with other procedures in ABA. They can be especially beneficial to early learners, and allow therapy session to be interactive and adaptable.
Visit our 'Lesson Library' to see NET in action:
Prompting Attributes
Contrived: Purposely creating a situation so an individual will have an opportunity to attempt a current target.
Reinforcement: The process of increasing a behavior to occur more often.
Prompt: Step completed by the teacher to assist the learner.
Maintenance: The ability to maintain. mastered skill after it has been 'mastered'.
Generalization: The ability to engage in skills across setting people, and materials.
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