Prompting
What is prompting? Prompting is the act of providing assistance to an individual to perform a correct response. The goal of prompting is to help an individual learn the correct response as quickly and efficiently as possible so that the response eventually occurs independently. When prompting is used, it is used immediately before or after an instruction. There are 2 main ways to prompt an individual to perform a correct response:
| Stimulus Prompts | Response Prompts |
|---|---|
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Prompting (Response Prompts)
Response prompts are actions that act directly on a response that results in correct responding. There are three main types of response prompts:
| PROMPTS | DEFINITION | EXAMPLE |
|---|---|---|
| Full Physical |
*Most intrusive because it requires the trainer to manually perform the target response with the individual. Physically guiding the person in performing the correct response. Also known as, hand over hand manipulation. |
✔ A teacher places her hand over her student’s hand and writes the alphabet. ✔ A brother walks with his little sister as her feet are on top of his feet. |
| Partial Physical | Providing some physical guidance in performing a correct response. |
✔ A father provides downward pressure on his son’s fingers as he cuts a piece of paper. ✔ A coach positions an athlete’s hands on a golf club before the athlete swings it. |
| Modeling | Performing the same response the individual is to perform. |
✔ A mother wants her son to tie his shoes so she performs the steps of tying one of his shoes in front of him. ✔ A supervisor demonstrates how to fill out a timecard while an employee watches. |
Prompting Worksheet
Test your knowledge: Can you identify the types of prompting that has occurred in the following scenarios?
Scenario #1:
8-year-old Sam is learning how to color within the lines. He has a horse and a barn on his coloring page. The teacher’s aide sits beside him and colors the barn door as he watches her.
The response prompt the teacher’s aide used was:
Scenario #2:
Dad is teaching his son Robert how to change a tire on his car. Dad loosens the lug nuts and Robert completes taking off the lug nuts, changes the tire, and tightens the lug nuts. Dad then tightens the lug nuts tighter.
The response prompt dad used was:
Scenario #3:
A client is learning how to dial his parents’ phone number on a phone. The therapist uses the client’s own finger to dial the numbers on the phone.
The response prompt the therapist used was:
Prompt Fading
What is Prompt Fading?
Because prompting is assisting an individual to perform the correct response, it is easy for the person to become dependent on prompting. This means that the individual begins to respond in the presence of the prompt instead of the SD/instruction or natural cue. To decrease the chances of prompt dependency, it is important to fade the prompts.