Lovaas model

Discrete trial training (DTT; also called discrete trial instruction or DTI) is a technique used by practitioners of applied behavior analysis (ABA) that was developed by Ivar Lovaas at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). DTT is a practitioner-led, structured instructional procedure that breaks tasks down into simple subunits to shape new skills. Often employed up to 6–7 hours per day for children with autism, the technique relies on the use of prompts, modeling, and positive reinforcement strategies to facilitate the child's learning. It is also noted for its previous use of aversives to punish unwanted behaviors.

Lovaas spent most of his career conducting groundbreaking research on the use of this methodology to teach autistic children. As of 2005, two studies have shown that approximately 93% of children with autism under the age of 5 who received structured early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI), or 30–40 hours per week of DTT, had gained significant language, intellectual, and adaptive skills. The first, a seminal study by Lovaas (1987) reported that 47% of such children acquired typical language and academic skills, and were placed into mainstream classrooms at age 7. Follow-up measures in 1993 showed that all but one of the 'best outcome' children maintained their gains and were functioning socially at the same level as their typically developing adolescent peers. The study, later, received praise in a mental health report by the US Surgeon General in 1999.

The US National Research Council classified structured combined with more naturalistic EIBIs as "well-established" for the treatment of autism in 2001. Since 2009, the American Academy of Pediatrics identified EIBI and the early start denver model (ESDM)—a comprehensive developmental intervention overlapping with ABA—as the only evidence-based clinical interventions for the population.

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