Incidental teaching
A naturalistic teaching procedure in which the learner initiates interaction with an item or activity and the teacher uses that moment to prompt a more complete response before giving access.
In incidental teaching, the environment is arranged so that preferred items are visible but require help to reach. The learning opportunity begins when the learner initiates: reaching, pointing, looking or asking. The RBT then prompts a more elaborate or correct response, waits for it, and immediately gives the item or activity the learner was seeking. The learner's interest drives the trial.
A common sequence is: arrange the setting, wait for the learner to show interest, ask for or model a slightly better response (for example a word instead of a point, or a sentence instead of a word), and give the item when the learner responds. If the learner does not respond after the prompt, the plan usually says to model the response and then give access so the interaction ends well.
Incidental teaching is especially useful for language, including mands and descriptive words, and its built-in variety supports generalization. Because the learner chooses the item, the reinforcer is naturally strong at that moment.
The RBT keeps the opportunity short and positive and does not hold an item back so long that it turns into a power struggle.
Example and non-example
| Example | Paint jars are on a high shelf in a classroom. A student points at the blue paint. The RBT says, "What do you need?" and the student says "Blue paint." The RBT hands over the jar right away. |
|---|---|
| Non-example | The RBT holds up the blue jar and asks "What color?" while the student is working on another activity. Because the RBT, not the student, starts the exchange, it is not incidental teaching. |
Don't confuse it with
| Natural environment training | NET is a broader term for teaching in natural routines; incidental teaching specifically starts with the learner's own initiation. |
|---|---|
| Discrete trial teaching | In DTT the teacher starts each trial with an SD; in incidental teaching the learner's initiation starts it. |
Test yourself
-
Question 1In incidental teaching, what usually starts a teaching opportunity?
Show answer
C: The learner shows interest in an item or activity. Incidental teaching is learner-initiated: the adult waits for the learner to reach for, look at, or ask about something they want, then uses that moment to prompt the target response.
- A: A planned instruction at a table starts a discrete trial, not incidental teaching.
- B: Incidental teaching follows the learner's interest, not a fixed schedule of trials.
- D: Finishing a task is not what sets up the opportunity; the learner's interest is.
Task C.4 · 40-hour curriculum section E
-
Question 2At snack time, a child reaches toward crackers that the RBT placed on the counter, in view but out of reach. The RBT waits, the child says "cracker," and the RBT hands over a cracker. Which procedure is the RBT using?
Show answer
B: Incidental teaching. The child's reach (initiation) set up the opportunity, the RBT waited for a request, and the requested item was the reinforcer. These are the core steps of incidental teaching.
- A: In DTT the adult starts each trial with an instruction; here the child started the exchange.
- C: In NCR the item is given on a time schedule regardless of behavior; here it followed the request.
- D: Task interspersal mixes easy and hard targets within instruction; it does not describe this exchange.
Task C.4 · 40-hour curriculum section E
-
Question 3A child's target is two-word requests. At the park, the child points to a swing and says "swing." What should the RBT do?
Show answer
C: Model "push swing" and push the swing once the child says it. In incidental teaching, the adult uses the learner's initiation to prompt a more elaborate response (the target), then delivers the item or activity the learner wanted.
- A: The target is two-word requests, so the RBT prompts the target response before reinforcing.
- B: Ignoring the initiation wastes the teaching moment the child created.
- D: Unrelated demands are not part of the incidental teaching step for this target.
Task C.4 · 40-hour curriculum section E
Answer every question to see your score.
On the RBT exam
This term belongs to task C.4 Naturalistic teaching in content area C, Behavior Acquisition, which is 19 of the 75 scored questions.