If your child is starting ABA therapy, you’ll quickly encounter terms that sound technical but describe fairly concrete things. DTT. NET. PECS. PRT. These aren’t just acronyms — they’re the names of specific teaching methods that ABA therapists use, each suited to different kinds of learning and different goals. Understanding what each technique is and when it gets used helps parents make sense of what they’re seeing in sessions and have more productive conversations with their child’s care team.

This is a plain-language explainer of the most common ABA techniques. You don’t need a graduate degree to understand them — you just need someone to translate.

Discrete Trial Training (DTT)

Discrete Trial Training is one of the oldest and most studied methods in ABA. It’s a structured, repetitive teaching format that breaks skills down into their smallest components and teaches each component deliberately.

Each “trial” follows a predictable three-part structure: the therapist gives an instruction (called an antecedent or discriminative stimulus), the child responds, and the therapist provides feedback — either a reinforcer for a correct response or a prompt and correction for an incorrect one. Then the sequence resets and repeats.

For example, if the goal is to teach a child to identify colors, a therapist might place three colored cards on the table and say “Touch blue.” The child points to the blue card. The therapist says “Yes! Great job!” and delivers a small reinforcer — maybe a piece of a preferred snack, a brief turn with a favorite toy, or enthusiastic praise. The trial resets, the cards are rearranged, and the instruction is given again.

DTT is particularly useful for introducing new concepts, building foundational language, and working on skills that require clear, consistent practice to establish. It works well for children who benefit from predictability and explicit instruction. The limitation of DTT is that skills learned in a table setting don’t always automatically transfer to real-world contexts — which is why it’s almost always paired with other techniques like NET.

Natural Environment Teaching (NET)

Natural Environment Teaching is, in many ways, the complement to DTT. Where DTT creates controlled teaching moments, NET embeds learning into everyday activities and natural settings.

In NET, the therapist follows the child’s lead. If a child gravitates toward the building blocks during free play, the therapist uses that activity to target language goals: requesting pieces (“I want red”), labeling colors or shapes, taking turns, or commenting on what they’re building. The learning is real, the context is meaningful, and the child is motivated because the activity is something they actually want to do.

NET is also how ABA therapists work on the generalization of skills — making sure that something a child learned at a table also works in the playroom, at the playground, and at home. A purpose-built center with multiple environments (a turf room, a playground, an art room, a lunch area) makes it possible to practice the same skill across genuinely different contexts without ever leaving the building.

Most quality ABA programs use both DTT and NET strategically, moving between them based on the child’s current goals and what each technique does best. For a broader picture of how these sessions fit into a complete ABA program, our guide to how ABA therapy works covers the full structure from assessment to progress monitoring.

PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System)

The Picture Exchange Communication System is a communication training method designed for children who are minimally verbal or nonverbal. PECS teaches children to communicate by exchanging pictures with a communication partner rather than relying on spoken words — at least initially.

The process is systematic and follows a defined series of phases. In the first phase, a child learns the most basic element of communication: that handing something to another person produces a result. They give a picture of a preferred item to the therapist; the therapist immediately provides that item. This establishes the fundamental social exchange that more complex communication is built on.

In later phases, children learn to build phrases using picture strips (“I want + [item]”), to make requests across different people and settings, and to comment on their environment. For many children, PECS serves as a bridge toward speech — the structured practice of communicating intentionally often stimulates the development of verbal language alongside it.

PECS is used alongside or in coordination with augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices and apps, and the Speech Therapist and ABA team typically collaborate closely on communication goals. For more on how picture boards and similar tools support children in expressing their needs, see our post on how communication boards help children with autism express their needs.

Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT)

Pivotal Response Treatment is an ABA approach that focuses on a small set of “pivotal” behaviors — areas of development that, when improved, tend to produce broad improvements across many other skills. The two most central pivotal areas are motivation and self-initiation.

Motivation matters in PRT because a child who is genuinely engaged and motivated learns more efficiently and retains skills better than a child who is compliant but disinterested. PRT keeps motivation high by giving children choice, varying tasks and materials, and mixing in things the child has already mastered alongside new challenges. Related reading: our post on how token systems motivate children during ABA sessions explains another tool therapists use to sustain engagement. It also uses natural reinforcers whenever possible — if a child is working on requesting, the reinforcer is the thing they requested, not an arbitrary treat.

Self-initiation is targeted because children who learn to initiate their own learning — who ask questions, start conversations, or seek out new activities on their own — tend to generalize skills faster and depend less on external prompting over time. PRT strategies are often embedded throughout the day rather than confined to a formal session structure.

PRT was developed specifically for autism and has a strong evidence base. It tends to be particularly effective for younger children and for working on language, social behavior, and play.

Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) and Behavior Intervention

Not all ABA techniques are about teaching new skills — some are about understanding and reducing behaviors that interfere with learning or quality of life. A Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) is the process a BCBA uses to investigate why a specific challenging behavior is happening.

Behavior serves a function — it’s not random. A child who screams when asked to stop an activity might be doing so to escape a demand (avoiding something unpleasant), to get attention, or because they have a limited repertoire of other ways to express protest. The FBA investigates what’s maintaining the behavior by collecting data across different settings and conditions.

Once the function is identified, the BCBA designs a behavior intervention plan that addresses the root cause rather than just the surface behavior. This means teaching the child a replacement behavior — a more appropriate way to achieve the same goal — and changing the environment to make the challenging behavior less necessary and less effective. This approach is more humane and more durable than strategies that simply try to suppress behavior without addressing what’s driving it.

Task Analysis and Chaining

Many of the skills children need to learn — brushing teeth, washing hands, getting dressed — are actually sequences of smaller steps rather than single behaviors. Task analysis is the process of breaking a complex skill into those individual steps and teaching each one deliberately.

Once the steps are defined, therapists use a technique called chaining to teach the sequence. In forward chaining, the child is taught the first step first, then the second is added once the first is mastered, and so on. In backward chaining, the child is prompted through all steps except the last one, which they complete independently — a structure that gives the child a built-in sense of accomplishment at the end of every trial.

Task analysis is used constantly in ABA therapy, often for self-care routines, play sequences, and classroom readiness skills. It’s one of the reasons ABA is effective at building independence, not just compliance.

How These Techniques Work Together

No single technique is used in isolation. A skilled BCBA selects and blends methods based on what each child needs, what goal is being targeted, and what stage of learning the child is in. A child might start with intensive DTT to establish a foundational skill, move into PRT to build motivation around that skill in a more natural context, and eventually practice it through NET across multiple environments.

At Autism Centers of Utah, treatment plans are individualized precisely because this matching of technique to child and goal is a clinical judgment, not a formula. The center’s physical environment — with its multiple distinct spaces — supports the kind of varied practice that helps skills stick and generalize.

Questions About What Your Child’s Program Involves?

If your child is already in an ABA program and you’ve heard these terms and wanted to understand them better, we hope this helps. If you’re considering starting ABA therapy for your child and want to talk through how these methods would apply to their specific situation, our team is happy to have that conversation.

Call Autism Centers of Utah at (385) 417-3869 to schedule a welcome call. We’ll explain how our program works, answer your questions about the methods we use, and help you understand what a typical day at our center looks like for a child at your child’s stage of development.