Incidental teaching is a naturalistic strategy used in applied behavior analysis (ABA) where learning happens during everyday activities, driven by what the child is already interested in. Rather than sitting a child at a table and running through structured drills, the adult arranges the environment so the child is naturally motivated to communicate or use a skill, then uses that moment as a teaching opportunity. The concept was introduced by Betty Hart and Todd Risley in 1975, originally as a way to build language skills like labeling and describing during naturally occurring interactions between adults and children.
How an Incidental Teaching Episode Works
The process starts before any teaching happens, with the adult setting up the environment. This means placing preferred toys or snacks where the child can see them but can’t reach them independently. If a child wants access to something, they need to go through the adult first. This creates what’s called “shared control,” where the child’s motivation is high but the adult holds the key to what the child wants.
When the child initiates, whether by pointing, reaching, or making a sound toward a desired item, the adult treats that moment as a teaching opportunity. The adult might ask, “What do you want?” or “Tell me what this is.” If the child responds at or above the expected level (say, by naming the item), they get the item right away. If the response falls short, the adult can model the correct answer (“It’s a ball”) or prompt a fuller response (“Ask me in a full sentence”). Over time, the adult shapes progressively more accurate or elaborate responses across these brief episodes.
One useful tactic is offering only a small amount of a preferred item, like a few crackers instead of the whole box. This increases the chances the child will initiate again when they want more, creating repeated natural opportunities to practice the skill without the interaction feeling forced or repetitive.
What It Looks Like in Practice
Incidental teaching has been used to teach a wide range of skills. In early research, it helped children with autism learn to identify items during a daily lunch preparation routine. It has also been used to teach spatial concepts like prepositions in classroom settings. A common application involves building requesting skills: a child reaches for a toy truck on a high shelf, and the therapist uses that moment to teach the child to say “truck,” then eventually “I want the truck,” gradually raising expectations as the child progresses.
The goals of this kind of interaction go beyond just getting the child to say a word. Each episode also works on establishing joint attention (both people focused on the same thing), practicing turn-taking, responding to different types of adult cues, and providing information when asked. These are foundational social and communication skills that carry over into conversations and interactions outside of therapy.
How It Differs From Discrete Trial Training
Discrete trial training (DTT) is the more traditional, structured approach in ABA. It involves a systematic presentation of stimuli at a table, with the teacher controlling what’s taught, when it’s taught, and how many times the child practices. Opportunities to respond are managed entirely by the teacher, and sessions often use a “mass trial” format where the same skill is drilled repeatedly in a block.
Incidental teaching flips that dynamic. The child’s motivation guides what gets taught and when. Instruction is distributed across the day rather than concentrated in one sitting, and it happens in the settings where the child naturally spends time: during play, meals, or transitions between activities. Reinforcement is also different. In DTT, a child might earn a sticker or token for a correct response. In incidental teaching, the reinforcer is built into the interaction itself. If a child asks for bubbles, they get bubbles.
Research comparing the two approaches consistently favors incidental teaching for one outcome in particular: generalization. A review of ten studies found that naturalistic teaching produced faster or at least equal skill acquisition compared to DTT for young children with autism. But the real advantage showed up when researchers looked at whether children could use those skills with different people and in different places. In one study, only the incidental teaching condition led to children using their target phrases with new people and in new locations. Another study found that while DTT produced faster initial results when teaching color words to two children with autism, incidental teaching led to better retention, broader generalization, and more spontaneous speech over time.
Why Generalization Is the Key Advantage
One of the most persistent challenges in ABA is getting skills learned in therapy to transfer into real life. A child might perfectly label colors at a clinic table but not use those words at home or school. Incidental teaching addresses this directly by embedding learning into the environments and routines where the child will actually need the skills. When a child practices requesting during snack time at home, there’s no gap between the training setting and the real-world setting. They’re the same.
A 2012 meta-analysis of interest-based interventions for children with autism (ages two to six) quantified this advantage. Studies measuring communication outcomes like joint attention, turn-taking, and language competence found a very large average effect size of 5.03 when comparing baseline to intervention. Even when comparing conditions using low-interest versus high-interest materials, the effect size was 1.07, confirming that following the child’s motivation meaningfully boosts outcomes.
Who Benefits From Incidental Teaching
While incidental teaching is most closely associated with autism services, its reach extends further. Research supports its use with children who have intellectual disabilities, emotional and behavioral disorders, and other developmental conditions. One study of 61 preschoolers with varying disabilities across 31 different early childhood classrooms found that incidental teaching had a clear positive effect on social success. The approach works well for any learner who benefits from motivation-driven, context-rich instruction rather than abstract, table-based drills.
Parents Can Learn It Too
Incidental teaching isn’t limited to trained therapists. Parents and caregivers can implement it at home, and research shows they can learn the procedures with relatively high fidelity. One study trained four Chinese parents of children with autism to use incidental teaching through a telehealth format, combining online learning modules with video feedback on their technique. All four parents increased their fidelity to the procedures, and their children showed increases in both prompted and independent requesting. Parent skill levels held up at follow-up, and all participants rated the training positively.
The practical takeaway is straightforward. If your child is receiving ABA services, incidental teaching is something you can extend into daily life at home. Arrange the environment so your child needs to communicate to get what they want, wait for them to initiate, prompt when needed, and give them what they asked for when they respond. Every snack, every toy request, every moment of shared attention becomes a chance to build language and social skills in the context where they’ll actually be used.