When attempting to teach children with autism and other developmental disabilities, we tend to be focused on specific goals. Anything that is not part of our mission for the session is a distraction, so we attempt to get back on track as soon as possible. That’s not a bad thing, as getting distracted is a common cause of poor teaching. When you jump around and multi-task without focused goals, the instruction tends to be poor.
But there is an exception to the rule of focusing exclusively on your goals. Sometimes the child starts to spontaneously use appropriate social and language skills while we are working with her. I call this “getting a free lunch!” When this happens, in my view it is completely fine to drop your focused, goal-based plan temporarily to reinforce the newly used social and language skills. These skills might have been difficult to teach, so don’t lose this opportunity to reinforce desirable behaviors while the student is motivated to engage in them.
Too often, I see children spontaneously use a great social or language skill that is rare in their repertoire, only to be redirected by a BCBA or an RBT back to the task at hand. That might be appropriate in some cases. For example, if the child frequently uses interruptions to avoid tasks, then sure, redirect him back to the task.
As a general rule though, always take the free lunch. When the child throws some great behavior at you that you haven’t seen in the past, I suggest reinforcing it. If you don’t, there is a good chance you won’t see it again.