Naturalistic Teaching Strategies: How NATS Can Help Your Child Succeed
Naturalistic Teaching Strategies (or NATS) is one of the major cornerstones of an ABA program. This involves using things that your child is interested in, or activities your child enjoys, in order to guide learning. Unlike Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT), NATS is much less structured and frequently revolves around play.
Some hallmarks of a NATS program include:
A looser structure: Unlike DTT, which can be rigid, NATS sessions are usually loose and based around play.
Conducted in the child’s natural environment, such as home, school, or in the community
A variation from session to session: NATS can be used to teach a variety of instructions, questions, and responses, so each session is different
Rewards specific to your child: Rewards will be given based on what motivates your child, and can be switched up to ensure that they don’t get bored or oversaturated.
NATS can be used to achieve a wide range of goals. These might include appropriate responding to questions or stimuli, generalizing appropriate responses or behavior across several different settings, and using these behaviors independently when they’re in a new setting.
Most importantly, NATS should be fun! Motivation is crucial to successfully using NATS with your child. Without your child being motivated and wanting to continue, you’re unlikely to get the results that you want.
So how do we integrate NATS into a child’s program? We start by looking for opportunities. The best time to utilize NATS is when your child wants something. When they let us know that they want something specific, by reaching for it or pointing at it, we can prompt them to give an appropriate response before they are given the thing that they want.
Appropriate responses range widely from child to child. For children who are more verbal, this might mean that we want them to ask for the thing that they want. For other children, they might need to use an assistive technology device or communicate with an image-based system.
It might also be unrelated. For example, we might want your child to demonstrate a skill that we have been working with them on. When they provide an appropriate response, they are given the item that they initially requested.
If you’re interested in using NATS with your child, talk to your Case Manager or Clinical Director! They can let you know what strategies are already being used with your child, and can show you how to implement them in your own home.
If your child is not already enrolled in an ABA program, we can help! Contact us today to learn more about our best-in-class ABA services, and see how we can help your child achieve a world without limits.