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*** PROMPTING AND PROMPT FADING ***



Remember when your child was first born? You had to do everything for them - feed them, change their diaper...anticipate their needs as they could only communicate through crying. There comes a time, however, when a child's motor and communication skills improve and they must learn to start doing things on their own. For children with special needs, this often presents a serious challenge as the skills necessary to take these steps are delayed.

"Prompting" is giving someone assistance to help them complete a task. This can be provided in a whole range of ways from completely doing something for someone else (feeding them) to giving them a small hint or cue (nodding towards their fork to remind them to start eating). As parents, you must only give the amount of assistance necessary to do something, and your goal is to gradually reduce (or "fade") the level prompts that you give your child until they can perform an activity independently. In order to do so, you must first be aware of the prompting you are giving, to have a plan to systematically reduce the prompts (which will vary depending on the type of support you are providing), and to execute the plan (despite the resistance you are sure to face from your child). Understanding prompt fading is critical because if you do not teach your child to do things on their own, then they will always depend on you for help.

For example, consider the activity of eating independently. Imagine that you are currently feeding your child and want to work towards decreasing the assistance you are giving so they can learn to eat on their own using utensils. You could start by putting a fork in their hand, holding your hand on top of theirs, and guiding their hand to their mouth. Once they are successful doing this, you could guide their hand only half way from the table to their mouth and let them pick the fork up the rest of the way and put it in their mouth. Next, you could load the fork with food and leave it on the plate and tap the child's hand to remind them to pick it up and feed themself. Next, you could separate out the food on their plate into bite sized pieces, load up the fork for the first bite, but leave them to load it the rest of the meal. Another time, you could start eating your own meal, thereby modelling for your child what to do. As a final step, you could place a plate of food in front of them, look at them expectantly, and wait for them to start eating before you take a bite of your own food.

Another example of prompt fading would be if you asked your child the question "what is this?" showing them an apple. The biggest prompt would be to give them the answer ("Apple"). Other lesser prompts could be to give the first sound ("a") or to give a choice ("Is it a pear or an apple?"). An even smaller prompt could be to give a hint ("it's a fruit"). Sometimes, the only prompt needed is simply to pause and give the child more time to answer your question. Remember - you want your child to get the answer right (so they don't inadvertently learn and remember the wrong answer), but with as little help from you as possible.

One prompt I use every day with both of my children (including my typically developing 9 year old) is to pause when I hear a request that does not include the word "please". "I am thirsty" is met with silence until it is rephrased, for example, to "Can I have a drink please?". Another "manners prompt" is to hold on to things as you are handing them over until you hear the words "Thank you".

Prompts can be visual (photograph or drawing), auditory (verbal by talking to the child or playing a recorded message), physical (touching the child, helping them hand over hand), gestural (pointing or signing). spatial (placement of objects closer to them), and/or facial expressions.

Your goal is to initially provide only the level of prompting necessary, and then to systematically withdraw your prompts in order of largest to smallest until, ultimately, the task can be completed without any prompt. The way prompts are to be faded depends on the activity and the type of prompt. The exact methodology in each case should be discussed with your child's therapists and/or teachers. Here are some general points to keep in mind:

(1) Most types of prompts can be faded by introducing delays (and extending the delays) before providing the prompt;

(2) In general, it is easier to fade visual prompts (for example, a picture of a fork) than vocal prompts ("eat Joe");

(3) It is easier to fade an auditory prompt that is coming from another source and not from you (such as a recording device called a "mini me" (see below) which does not move its lips thereby providing an additional visual prompt - basically two prompts in one - the way talking does);

(4) Vocal prompts can be faded by progressively saying less (shorten from a sentence, to a phrase, to a word, to a sound) and also by decreasing the volume of your voice saying it softer and softer;

(5) Visual prompts can be literally faded by fading the picture (photocopying it lighter and lighter until it is a blank page, or shrinking the image until it is so small you can barely see it);

(6) Visual prompts can be faded by moving them farther and farther out of view, hiding them "inadvertently" under something;

(7) Facial expressions can also be prompts, such as if you look at the correct answer. These can be faded by decreasing the exaggeration of your facial expression; and

(8) Spatial prompts (such as placement of objects) can also be used. For example, if you ask your child to get something but place it closer or farther away; if there are several objects on the table, but you separate the target object from the group, etc.

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"Mini-me's" are basically tape recorders that only record brief messages of ten seconds or so. These small recording devices are sometimes embedded in a stuffed animal's paw to deliver a message. To purchase, see the "Mini-me" section in the "Miscellaneous" category of this website.

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Formal Research: Prompts and Prompt Fading



Fading Teacher Prompts From Peer-Initiation Interventions for Young Children With Disabilities

Embedding an Identity-Matching Task within a Prompting Hierarchy to Facilitate Acquisition of Conditional Discriminations in Children with Autism
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