All about prompting!

Prompting: a BUZZ word we hear all the time, but rarely think about! We are prompted possibly hundreds of times a day. Look at your schedule for the day and see you have a meeting at 2:00 pm? PROMPT! Remind your partner to switch the laundry? PROMPT!

This blog is to help us understand what prompts are, how we use them, how to eventually decrease dependency on them, and increase independence!

So, what is prompting?

Prompting is a tool that is used to increase the likelihood of a desired response. We provide a prompt after the instruction, but before the response. Like this:

Instruction: Point to the RED ball

Prompt: Guides hand towards the red ball

Response: Child points to the red ball

Consequence*: The child gets praise “Good job! You’re right that is the red ball!”

*Remember: Consequences are simply a response to an action.

A consequence can be positive!

What are the types of prompts?

There are 6 main types of prompting. Visual, Verbal, Gestural, Modeling, Partial Physical Prompt and Full Physical Prompt. Each prompt has a certain level of invasiveness, and a degree of independence attached to it. Think about how much control the child has when you provide the prompt. When you show a visual prompt a child has the choice to look at it or not, making it a minimally invasive prompt, with a high degree of independence. On the other hand, if you prompt a child by doing hand-over-hand (full physical prompt) they have a very little amount of independence and the prompt is very invasive.

But, where do I start?

It all depends on the child! As a baseline use Most to Least prompting. This means starting with a more invasive prompt (e.g., Partial Physical), and slowly increasing independence (next you would try modelling). If the desired response is something new to the child, they are more likely to need more prompting than if it is something they are comfortable with.

What is prompt dependency and how do I make sure it doesn’t happen?

Okay, now that we know how wonderful prompts are and how they can help our children, we need to look at how we can slowly reduce and remove prompts so that a child does not become dependent on them. Using Most to Least prompting you can gradually transition to a less invasive prompt. For example, if you are gesturing to the correct answer, when the child is ready you could provide a verbal prompt instead.

How can I use a time delay?

A time delay is another great strategy to help fade prompting. As a child becomes more confident and independent in a task, you can slowly create a delay before you prompt the child. By adding in a time delay, it allows them to think about the instruction and begin to work towards the desired response without prompting!

Check out my Prompting Hierarchy resource on Teachers Pay Teachers! It's a great resource to increase your prompting knowledge and has visuals (Posters!) that you can use to help your EAs / Paraprofessionals with prompt and prompt fading.

Happy Prompting!