Using Transfer Trials to Teach Tacting to Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Three autistic kids learned new picture names in a tabletop DTT program.

The team ran two formats: one added a quick transfer trial after each error, the other stayed with classic three-step DTT.

Sessions were short—about 15 minutes—and mastery was set at 100 % correct across two consecutive sessions.

Both formats worked fast. Every child hit mastery in 2-4 sessions no matter which format they got first.

There was no speed edge for adding transfer trials; accuracy curves sat on top of each other.

Belisle et al. (2020) also taught tacts to autistic kids, but used most-to-least PEAK prompting instead of comparing trial formats. Their kids learned just as quickly, showing that several roads lead to fast tact gains.

Yanchik et al. (2024) looked at toddlers and found that mixing NET with DTT beat DTT alone for adaptive skills. They still kept DTT for kids who needed more structure, matching Dell’Aringa’s view that plain DTT is solid when the goal is simple tact acquisition.

Frampton et al. (2019) used matrix training to get emergent color-shape tacts without direct teaching. Their efficiency came from recombinative generalization, not from trial format tweaks—another reminder that speed can come from what you teach, not just how you deliver trials.

You can stop worrying about inserting extra transfer trials when you run tact programs. Pick the routine that feels smoother for you and the child; the learning rate will be the same. Save your planning time for targets, prompts, or generalization activities instead.