Prompting
What is prompting?
According to Cooper, Heron, and Heward (2007), prompting is a method to develop stimulus control. More specifically, the authors state, "prompts are supplementary antecedent stimuli used to occasion a correct response in the presence of a discriminative stimulus that will eventually control the behavior." (p. 401).
Prompting Methods:
Applied behavior analysts use response and stimulus prompts before or during the performance of a target behavior:
Response Prompts:
There are three procedures that use response prompts to teach various tasks. These three methods include verbal instructions, modeling, and physical guidance.
Stimulus Prompts:
These types of prompts often employ movement, position, and redundancy of the antecedent stimuli. You could use movement cue to help a child discriminate between numbers by pointing to, tapping, touching, or looking at the number that is to be chosen. Redundancy cues are used when one or stimulus or response dimension is paired with the correct choice.
Preventing Prompt Dependence:
A disadvantage of using prompts is that the child may become dependent on the prompt and not actually learn the task. There are three prompting procedures used to prevent prompt dependence, they include most-to-least prompts, graduated guidance, least-to-most prompting, and time delay.
According to Cooper, Heron, and Heward (2007), prompting is a method to develop stimulus control. More specifically, the authors state, "prompts are supplementary antecedent stimuli used to occasion a correct response in the presence of a discriminative stimulus that will eventually control the behavior." (p. 401).
Prompting Methods:
Applied behavior analysts use response and stimulus prompts before or during the performance of a target behavior:
- Stimulus Prompts: These prompts act directly on the antecedent task stimuli to cue a correct response along with the vital discriminative stimulus.
- Response Prompts: Response prompts act directly on the response after the task has been presented.
Response Prompts:
There are three procedures that use response prompts to teach various tasks. These three methods include verbal instructions, modeling, and physical guidance.
- Verbal Instructions: In this method of response prompting, the therapist uses functionally appropriate verbal instructions as supplementary response prompts. Verbal instructions use vocal-verbal prompts (i.e., telling, oral) and nonvocal-verbal prompts (i.e., manual signs, pictures) to delivery verbal instructions. For example, suppose you asked a student to repeat a sentence you said to them as part of a listening comprehension program. Now, let's say the sentence was "On Thursday, Susie rode her red bike to school." and you ask the child "What did Susie do." The child gets stuck on repeating the part of the sentence, "Susie did...Susie did....Susie did.." As a therapist you could use various verbal prompts to help get the child to the correct answer. You could prompt the child by saying "What did Susie do? Susie rode her bike.", you could point to a picture of a bike and say bike.
- Modeling: In this method of response prompting, the therapist can demonstrate or model the desired behavior as a response prompt. The method can prompt behaviors especially for children who already have some component skills required for imitation. Another important prerequisite skill for a child to have if modeling is going to be effective is attending. The child must be able to actively observe what you are modeling in order to imitate the behavior correctly.
- Physical Guidance: This type of response prompt is used most with young children, learners with severe disabilities, and older adults with physical limitations. In this method, the therapist partially or fully physically guides the child's movements from the beginning to the end of the movement cycle. Physical guidance is an effective response prompt but it is more intrusive than verbal prompts and modeling procedures. As stated earlier, the use of physical guidance requires physical involvement between the therapist and the child. A disadvantage of physical guidance is it gives little chance for the child to complete the behavior on their own.
Stimulus Prompts:
These types of prompts often employ movement, position, and redundancy of the antecedent stimuli. You could use movement cue to help a child discriminate between numbers by pointing to, tapping, touching, or looking at the number that is to be chosen. Redundancy cues are used when one or stimulus or response dimension is paired with the correct choice.
Preventing Prompt Dependence:
A disadvantage of using prompts is that the child may become dependent on the prompt and not actually learn the task. There are three prompting procedures used to prevent prompt dependence, they include most-to-least prompts, graduated guidance, least-to-most prompting, and time delay.
- Most-to-least Prompts: This procedure is used to transfer stimulus control from response prompts to the natural stimulus when the participant does not respond to the natural stimulus or makes an incorrect response. The procedure is implemented as follows: the therapist physically guides the participant through the entire sequence, then gradually reduces the amount of physical guidance as teaching continues from trial to trial and session to session. The usually progression of prompts used in most-to-least prompting procedures is physical guidance --> visual prompts --> verbal instruction --> natural stimulus without any prompting. Below is a YouTube video that demonstrates the implementation of a most-to-least prompting procedure.
2. Graduated Guidance: In this procedure physical guidance is provided on an as needed basis. However, the therapist will immediately begin to fade out the physical prompts in order to transfer stimulus control. This procedure starts with the therapist following the child's movements closely with their hands, but they do not touch the participant unless they are preventing the emission of an incorrect movement. Then, therapist gradually begins increasing the distance of their hands from the child's by changing the location of the physical prompt. For example, from hands --> forearm --> elbow --> shoulder --> no physical contact with the child. Again, this procedure provides the child with the opportunity to complete the task independently but also allows for immediate physical guidance as necessary.
3. Least-to-Most Prompts: In this method, the therapist provides the child with an opportunity to perform the response with the least amount of assistance while completing a task. The child will receive greater amounts of assistant with each successive trial without a correct response. In this procedure, the child is required to make a correct response within a set time limit (i.e., 5 seconds) following the presentation of the SD. If the child does not make the correct response within the time limit, the therapist will represent the SD and a response prompt that is of least assistance, like a verbal cue. If the time limit elapses again without a response from the child, the therapist will present the SD again and provide another prompt, such as a gestural prompt. This procedure continues until the child emits the correct response with each successive incorrect resulting in the use of "most" response prompts. The response prompt hierarchy may look something like this: verbal cue --> gestural prompt --> partial physical prompt --> full physical prompt. The following video shows implementation of a least-to-most prompting procedure.
3. Least-to-Most Prompts: In this method, the therapist provides the child with an opportunity to perform the response with the least amount of assistance while completing a task. The child will receive greater amounts of assistant with each successive trial without a correct response. In this procedure, the child is required to make a correct response within a set time limit (i.e., 5 seconds) following the presentation of the SD. If the child does not make the correct response within the time limit, the therapist will represent the SD and a response prompt that is of least assistance, like a verbal cue. If the time limit elapses again without a response from the child, the therapist will present the SD again and provide another prompt, such as a gestural prompt. This procedure continues until the child emits the correct response with each successive incorrect resulting in the use of "most" response prompts. The response prompt hierarchy may look something like this: verbal cue --> gestural prompt --> partial physical prompt --> full physical prompt. The following video shows implementation of a least-to-most prompting procedure.
4. Time Delay: This is an antecedent response prompt procedure that only uses variations in time intervals between presentation of the natural stimulus and the presentation of the prompt. There are two different types of time delay procedures that can be implemented. Constant time delay and progressive time delay procedures transfer stimulus control from a prompt to the natural stimulus by delaying the prompt presentation following the natural stimulus presentation.
(a). Constant Time Delay: In this procedure, initially there are several trials that have a 0-second time delay. In other words, there is no time between the presentation of the SD and the prompt. Usually, after several trials at the 0-second delay, the time delay is increased to a fixed time delay, 5 seconds for example, between the presentation of the SD and the prompt. This video show the implementation of a constant time delay procedure in the applied setting.
(a). Constant Time Delay: In this procedure, initially there are several trials that have a 0-second time delay. In other words, there is no time between the presentation of the SD and the prompt. Usually, after several trials at the 0-second delay, the time delay is increased to a fixed time delay, 5 seconds for example, between the presentation of the SD and the prompt. This video show the implementation of a constant time delay procedure in the applied setting.
(b). Progressive Time Delay: The method also begins with several trials at a 0-second delay between SD and prompt presentation. The therapist gradually increases the time delay, usually in 1-second intervals. The delay can be increased after a specified number of sessions, after each session, a specific number of presentations or after meeting a performance criterion level. The following video shows a progressive time delay procedure:
Stimulus/Prompt Fading:
The last stimulus control procedure we will discuss is termed stimulus fading. In this stimulus control procedure, a physical dimension of the stimulus is highlighted to increase the likelihood of a correct response. The exaggerated dimension is gradually "faded out" (taken away) or "faded in" (added). Examples of potential stimulus features that could be exaggerated include color, size, position, etc.
***This last video reviews all of the prompting and stimulus control procedures that we discussed in this section of training***
The last stimulus control procedure we will discuss is termed stimulus fading. In this stimulus control procedure, a physical dimension of the stimulus is highlighted to increase the likelihood of a correct response. The exaggerated dimension is gradually "faded out" (taken away) or "faded in" (added). Examples of potential stimulus features that could be exaggerated include color, size, position, etc.
***This last video reviews all of the prompting and stimulus control procedures that we discussed in this section of training***