Multiple Exemplar Training in ABA: A Plain Guide

Multiple exemplar training is a way to teach a skill so it sticks. You teach the skill using many different examples, not just one. The short name is MET. The goal is that the learner can use the skill in new places, too.

This matters for BCBAs, RBTs, teachers, and parents. A skill that only works in one room is not very useful. MET builds skills that travel to new people, places, and things. That travel is called generalization, and it is the whole point.

Why one example is never enough#

Teaching with a single example can trap a skill. The learner may only respond to that exact item or setting. MET fixes this by using a spread of examples on purpose. Tom Sabo calls it a backbone of the field.

Multiple exemplar training is a dominant way that we teach people in applied behavior analysis. From the talk. Tom Sabo

He also shows how far it reaches beyond basic skills. Sabo uses MET in acceptance and commitment work. Some events in a person's life look like one thing but act like another. He uses the same kind of training to help clients tell those events apart.

Teaching internal cues with MET#

Some skills are hard because you cannot see the target. Carolyn works on helping people notice signals inside their own body. Think of a racing heart or a tight stomach before a meltdown. These internal cues are tricky to teach.

Her fix is to pair the inside feeling with an outside event. Over many examples, the inside cue becomes clearer on its own.

Internal sensations become more discriminable when systematically paired with observable antecedents. From the talk. Carolyn

The aim is to hand control over to the internal cue. The learner should not need an outside prompt forever. MET, prompt fading, and generalization work together to get there.

Help transfer stimulus control from external prompts to internal cues through multiple exemplar training, prompt fading, and generalizations. From the talk. Carolyn

Teaching staff, not just clients#

MET is not only for learners with autism. Matt Harrington uses it to train the adults, too. He wants staff to know what to do after a client says no. That skill is hard to teach with words alone.

The skillset of knowing what to do next, I think comes a lot from multiple exemplar training. And by multiple exemplar training, I mean, observing multiple occurrences of a successful ascent withdrawn to response. From the talk. Matt Harrington

Staff watch many real examples of a good response. This stops them from freezing or overreacting in the moment. Harrington adds one more trick. He narrates and sportscasts what he is doing as he does it. That running play-by-play makes each step clear for the staff who watch.

The power of teaching a small set#

MET can be very efficient when set up well. You do not have to teach every single case. A smart spread of examples can unlock many untrained ones. Matt Harrington shares a striking study.

There was an article that was teaching, I think it was three-digit numbers... It used matrix training. And they were able to teach something like 1,000 numbers by only teaching 64. From the talk. Matt Harrington

That is the dream of good teaching. A small, well-chosen set produces a large payoff. The learner starts responding to combinations you never drilled. Harrington covers more generalization tactics like this in 5 Days of Manding Mastery.

What the research says#

The research base for MET is broad and strong. Salomonsen and Eldevik used a serial version to build naming skills. They taught listener and speaker behavior one item at a time. Three of four preschoolers with autism reached the mastery bar, and skills generalized across people and settings (Salomonsen & Eldevik, 2024).

MET also reaches social and emotional skills. Sivaraman taught empathy responses across several cues and two people. The children with autism learned to respond, and the skill carried to untrained cues and later probes (Sivaraman, 2017). This shows MET is not just for simple targets.

It can even teach playful, complex social moves. St. Clair and colleagues used MET, rules, modeling, and feedback to teach friendly tricks. Four autistic children and teens learned to play harmless tricks on others. The skill generalized to new, untrained tricks (St. Clair et al., 2024). Across these studies, generalization is the common theme.

How to choose your examples well#

Good MET depends on picking the right spread of examples. Random variety is not enough on its own. You want examples that cover the range the skill must handle. That means different people, settings, and materials.

Think about where the skill needs to work in real life. Then build your teaching set to match that range. If a child must greet many people, teach with many faces. If a cue can look many ways, show many versions of it.

Watch for a hidden trap called faulty stimulus control. That is when the learner responds to the wrong feature. A narrow set can teach the wrong thing by accident. A varied set guards against that and keeps the target clear.

FAQ#

What does "exemplar" mean in multiple exemplar training?

An exemplar is just one example of the skill or stimulus. In MET you teach with many exemplars on purpose. That could mean different objects, people, words, or settings. The variety is what helps the skill generalize.

How is MET different from matrix training?

They are close cousins with the same goal of generalization. Matrix training arranges examples in a grid of combinations. Teaching some cells can produce many untrained cells. MET is the broader idea of teaching across varied examples.

What skills can you teach with MET?

MET works for a wide range of targets. Studies show it teaching naming, empathy, and social tricks. Practitioners also use it for internal body cues and staff skills. Any skill that needs to travel to new situations is a good fit.