Student Characteristics and Teachers’ Decisions to Use 1:1 Instruction

Abstract

Evidence-based treatments for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) include behavioral interventions that teach communication, cognitive, social, and adaptive skills. One-to-one instruction is a critical component of evidencebased instruction for students with ASD, but is not used as often as recommended. Two recent studies suggest that student characteristics may affect teachers' decisions to select types of oneto-one treatment (e.g., pivotal response training [PRT] vs. discrete trial training [DTT]) and implement them in the classroom. In the first, teachers reported choosing DTT for students who had more significant cognitive delays, who struggled with compliance, and who did not imitate or attend in less structured settings (Stahmer et al. 2005). In the second, children's higher sensory symptoms, lower social approach, lower verbal skills, and higher self-regulation difficulties were found to be associated with more frequent 1:1 instruction (Nuske et al. 2019).