ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on methods of teaching new skills to the individual. It describes the general principles of selecting important skills for the reduction of problematic behaviour and outlines the principles of teaching such skills. Efficiency is essential for effective teaching. Efficiency starts by translating learning needs into realistic long-term goals. New skills can be learned in many ways. For example, they can be learned by watching others; or they can be learned by trial and error; they can be learned through experimentation; they can be learned through the formal and informal teaching efforts of others. Precision teaching is often started in artificial or arbitrary settings in order to create optimal learning conditions. During precision teaching arbitrary triggers are carefully planned in order to provide exactly the right amount of help the learner needs to succeed. Incidental teaching differs from precision teaching in that it aims to use more naturalistic methods for teaching.
