Use when selecting prompt types, designing prompt hierarchies, implementing systematic fading procedures, addressing prompt dependency, or choosing between most-to-least, least-to-most, time delay, stimulus fading, and stimulus shaping strategies.
Prompts are supplementary antecedent stimuli that increase the probability of a correct response during skill acquisition. Prompt fading is the systematic removal of these supplementary stimuli so that the target behavior comes under the control of the natural discriminative stimulus. Effective prompt fading is the difference between a learner who can perform a skill independently and one who becomes prompt-dependent.
Full physical prompt: Hand-over-hand or full body guidance through the entire response. Highest level of intrusiveness. Use when the learner has no approximation of the response and cannot imitate.
Partial physical prompt: Light touch, nudge, or guidance through part of the response. The clinician initiates the movement but the learner completes it.
Model prompt: The clinician demonstrates the target response. Requires the learner to have imitation skills in that modality (motor imitation for motor responses, echoic for vocal responses).
Gestural prompt: Pointing, motioning, head nods, eye gaze toward the correct response or materials. Less intrusive than modeling; relies on the learner attending to and interpreting the gesture.
Verbal prompt (vocal instruction): Telling the learner what to do. Ranges from full verbal ("Say 'I want cookie'") to partial verbal ("Say 'I want...'") to indirect verbal ("What do you say?"). Verbal prompts are among the hardest to fade because they are so natural for clinicians to deliver.
Positional prompt: Placing the correct item/response option closer to the learner or in a more prominent position. Easy to implement but easy for the learner to detect the pattern.
Visual prompt: Pictures, written text, video, visual schedules, or highlighted features that direct the learner to the correct response.
Within-stimulus prompt: Altering a feature of the target stimulus itself (e.g., making the correct answer larger, bolder, a different color). Faded by gradually reducing the exaggerated feature until the stimulus is in its natural form.
Extra-stimulus prompt: Adding an additional stimulus not part of the natural S^D (e.g., pointing to the correct card). Must be removed entirely during fading.
Within-stimulus prompts are generally preferred over extra-stimulus prompts because they direct attention to the relevant stimulus features, facilitating discrimination learning.
Begin with the most intrusive prompt level that ensures a correct response, then systematically reduce prompt intrusiveness across trials or sessions.
Typical hierarchy: Full physical → partial physical → model → gestural → independent
Procedure:
Advantages: Minimizes errors (errorless or near-errorless); reduces frustration; learner contacts reinforcement from the first trial.
Best for: New skill acquisition, learners with histories of failure or escape behavior, skills where errors are costly or dangerous (safety skills).
Present the S^D and give the learner an opportunity to respond independently. If no correct response occurs within the response interval, provide the least intrusive prompt. If still no correct response, escalate to the next prompt level.
Typical hierarchy: Independent opportunity → gestural → model → partial physical → full physical
Procedure:
Advantages: Provides opportunity for independent responding on every trial; avoids unnecessary prompting; promotes learner initiative.
Best for: Learners who have some approximation of the target skill, maintenance targets, skills where independence and self-initiation are priorities.
Continuous physical guidance that is adjusted moment-to-moment based on the learner's performance within a single trial. The clinician begins with full physical support and reduces pressure/contact as the learner begins to respond independently, then increases support if the learner falters.
Sometimes described as a "shadowing" technique — the clinician's hands hover near the learner's hands, ready to provide support only as needed.
Best for: Motor skills, self-care routines, skills taught through total task chaining. Particularly useful when the learner's performance varies within a single trial.
Advantages: Simple to implement; learner cannot make an error if they wait for the prompt; teaches the learner to either respond independently or wait for assistance.
Best for: Receptive and expressive identification, sight words, math facts, chained steps — any skill with a discrete correct response.
Same as CTD but the delay interval increases incrementally across sessions: 0s → 1s → 2s → 3s → 4s → 5s.
Advantages: More gradual transfer of stimulus control; may reduce errors compared to CTD for some learners.
Considerations: More complex to implement; requires tracking the current delay interval.
Gradually change the physical features of the S^D from an exaggerated/prompted form to the natural form. The prompt is embedded within the stimulus itself and faded by reducing the exaggeration.
Example: Teaching letter discrimination by initially presenting the target letter in red and larger, then gradually reducing the size and color difference until all letters are presented identically.
Advantages: Directs attention to relevant stimulus features; less susceptible to prompt dependency because the prompt is part of the stimulus.
Gradually transform the stimulus from a known/recognizable form to the target form. Unlike stimulus fading (which changes magnitude of a feature), stimulus shaping changes the topography of the stimulus.
Example: Superimposing a picture of a cat over the printed word "cat," then gradually fading the picture while the word remains, transferring control from the picture to the word.
Consider the following factors: