By Hart & Risley

Incidental teaching is a systematic protocol of instruction that is provided in the context of natural environments. It takes place in the settings in which the new skills targeted for teaching will be needed. Incidental teaching is most often thought of as a language promotion technique, but these teaching procedures apply equally well to domains such as social, self-care, and academic skills. The origins of incidental teaching are firmly grounded in the principles of learning that are the cornerstone of more traditional behavioral procedures. The following list describes this method of intervention:

	The intervention is composed of operant conditioning techniques
	The intervention goals are socially significant
	The intervention results are analyzed objectively by assessing each child's progress before, during, and after the intervention

In incidental teaching, the teacher or caregiver takes advantage of naturally occurring situations in which to provide language-learning opportunities for the child. The situation or activity is selected by the child, with the teacher or caregiver following the child's lead or interest. Incidental teaching strategies are designed to maximize reinforcement and facilitate generalization.

Once a teacher or caregiver identifies naturally occurring situations in which a child expresses interest, she or he then uses a series of graduated prompts to encourage the child's responses. Four levels of prompts are associated with incidental teaching.

	Level 1 - institute a 30-second delay when a child displays an interest in a specific object or material
	Level 2 - the caregiver prompts the child to ask for the desired object
	Level 3 - involves a more elaborate request by the caregiver
	Level 4 - the correct response is modeled by the caregiver and the child is prompted to imitate the response
	Caregivers are taught to use the lowest level of prompt that would encourage the correct response by the child.

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