What is DTT (Discrete Trial Training)?
Discrete trial training (DTT) is a structured ABA teaching method that breaks a skill into small steps and teaches each one through short, repeated trials, each made up of an instruction, the learner's response, and a consequence.
Every trial has the same shape: the instructor presents a clear instruction or cue, the learner responds, and the instructor delivers reinforcement for a correct response or a prompt and correction for an incorrect one, followed by a short pause before the next trial.
That structure is what makes DTT useful for skills needing many repetitions to establish - early language, imitation, matching, discrimination - and it produces unusually clean data, since every trial yields a recorded result.
DTT is normally one part of a program rather than the whole of it. Skills established at the table still have to hold up in real situations, so teams pair it with teaching in the natural environment.