Research: Behavioral Fluency: Evolution of a New Paradigm

This article is summarized in a chart that explains factors that prevent and promote fluency (learning a behavior until it becomes second nature). Fluency is promoted by: sufficient practice, self-paced learning, many response opportunities per minute, treating errors as â??learning opportunities,â? and providing many examples.

Behavioral fluency focuses on how a learned behavior can become second nature. In the behavioral fluency approach, a complex skill is broken down into parts, and each part is taught until the student becomes fluent in it. Then the parts are combined until the student becomes fluent in the whole behavior. The behavioral fluency approach developed from the realization that it is not enough for a child to be able to perform a task well, but with a great deal of effort. That same child will have likely have difficulty performing that same task within a series of more complex behaviors. The author also notes that students who are asked to perform tasks in which they are not yet fluent can display inappropriate or aggressive behavior when the duration of practice is too long. This led to the realization that practice times should be shorter for more difficult tasks.