ABA therapy utilizes many teaching techniques for learners to gain new skills.
Prompting is one technique which is frequently included within programming and is often very successful. Prompting refers to the therapist providing something which aids in the learner completing the correct response (such as selecting the correct answer, pumping soap into their hands during hand washing, or answering correctly when we ask “What is your name?” Without prompting, many learners would either not engage in the correct response (i.e. they would continue to rub their hands under water without getting the soap) or they may answer incorrectly (such as when a learner repeats the question we are asking instead of giving the answer).
Prompting can take many forms, verbal (where we are saying the whole or part of the answer), physical (where we might place our hands over the learner to guide them to the soap), gestural (where we may point to a correct answer), or a stimulus prompt (where we provide something to prompt them within their environment, such as a highlighted line for a paper, or a sign that says “Stop” when we want the learner to stop doing an action.
Prompting has 2 main methodologies, least to most and most to least. When we prompt the learner immediately with a “large” prompt (such as physical guidance), this is commonly referred to as errorless teaching. When we prompt using a “small” prompt such as a gesture or a small sound (like the first sound in a word) we refer to that as least to most prompting
Both of these methods are helpful for different reasons and as such there is no one size fits all approach to designing skill acquisition programs. All programs should be individualized to the learner to ensure that adequate progress is made and adjustments should be made regularly if this is not occuring.
To expand more on how these decisions are made and how individuals may benefit from one method over another , explore them both in more detail. Errorless teaching prevents mistakes or errors from occurring. If errors do not occur, learners become frustrated and may exhibit challenging behaviors such as hitting, kicking, screaming or trying to throw teaching materials. This makes sense because they are not getting the answers correct and are not getting access to reinforcers. Errorless teaching is also beneficial because by eliminating errors we are making it more likely for correct responding to continue to occur. If errors and mistakes happen frequently, we are more likely to repeat these errors or mistakes instead of the correct answer. In contrast, least to most prompting is successful because it often allows great independence in skills to be gained at a rapid rate. This means a child or adult that often “waits for someone to do it for them” may learn with this method that the prompt is not coming quickly and may complete the task themselves.
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