The Theoretical Context of Structured Teaching

Structured Teaching, TEACCH’s intervention approach for people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), shares principles and techniques with other psychoeducational interventions for this population. For example, during TEACCH’s earlier days in the 1970’s when behaviorism was the predominant educational intervention approach for students with developmental handicaps, most of the TEACCH intervention efforts emphasized reward and punishment contingencies. This approach is similar to many programs based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) today. Structured Teaching continues to share with ABA a highly structured learning environment that facilitates development in people with ASD. Unlike many ABA approaches, however, TEACCH does not create structure by relying on repeated trials that begin with a prompt and are followed by material reinforcements, because of concerns that doing so would likely lead to strong attachment to this routine (sometimes called “prompt dependence”) and would compound already severe problems with generalization. Instead, structure is provided by the physical environment, organizational strategies, and the presentation of materials, which is also similar to the Montessori approach with typically-developing children. Materials are organized systematically in visual ways that are meaningful to individuals with ASD and are also tailored to individuals’ strengths and interests.