Ms. Jacobs Uses Antecedent Prompting
Remember Ms. Jacobs from Vignette 7.1 ? In addition to directly teaching social skills, she also uses antecedent-prompting procedures with each of her students. To do this, she and her paraprofessional, Ms. Rogers, accompany their students to activities that involve social interaction with peers and adults without disabilities. In these situations, any time there is an opportunity for their students to initiate or respond to a social initiation, they first wait 5 to 10 seconds to give their students an opportunity to respond independently. If they do not, Ms. Jacobs or Ms. Rogers prompts the correct behavior. Some of the many instances in which they use antecedent prompting include the following:
· During game time, in which general education students join the class for a variety of games and leisure activities. Stations are set up around the room, and students choose their preferred activity. During the game or activity, students are expected to make appropriate social initiations (“Do you want to play checkers?”—asking questions pertinent to the game) and responses (answering questions pertinent to the game).
· While waiting for the bus, students are expected to interact with peers by making greetings, asking questions, and responding to greetings and questions.
· In the lunch line, students are expected to indicate their food choices either verbally or by pointing. At the end of the line, they are to say “Thank you” when given their food and “You’re welcome” when the cashier says “Thank you.”
Antecedent prompting has been found to effectively increase social interaction, particularly when the intervention includes multiple interaction opportunities with competent peers in natural contexts (Simpson et al., 1997; Whalon et al., 2015; White et al., 2011). However, potential negative aspects of the procedure have been noted. These include interruption of a naturally occurring social exchange (Strain & Fox, 1981), and children with autism becoming prompt dependent, exhibiting social behavior only when prompted to do so (Odom & Strain, 1986). We recommend the following guidelines for using prompts, as well as the guidelines described in Chapter 5 :
1. Use prompts only if needed. Prompt only if the student has not initiated or responded within a reasonable period of time (e.g., 5 to 10 seconds). When using prompts for social behavior, be careful not to interrupt the natural flow of social interaction to provide a prompt. The prompt is used only if the student fails to respond.
2. Use the least intrusive prompts needed to solicit target behaviors. Use verbal prompts if possible; if those fail to produce desired responding, physical prompts may be needed. Use partial verbal prompts; if those do not produce the desired response, use full verbal prompts.
3. Fade prompts as soon as possible. Use prompts as needed at first and then gradually increase the time that elapses between the opportunity for a social behavior and the teacher prompt. Also fade the level of prompts used. For example, if you begin training using full verbal prompts (“Eric, say ‘Yes, I’d like to have a turn.’”), move to partial verbal prompts as soon as possible (“Eric, what do you say?” or “Eric …?”).
4. If you detect that students are becoming prompt dependent, switch to another intervention or add a contingency in which unprompted initiations or responses are reinforced, using reinforcers in addition to naturally occurring social reinforcers. For example, a prompt-dependent student might earn tickets for each unprompted social initiation or response. Prompted social behaviors do not earn tickets. When he has accumulated 10 tickets, he may exchange them for use of a preferred material or activity for 10 minutes.