Human Behavior in Prompting - Research Paper Example

 Human behavior in prompting Introduction Prompting entails the help that is given to learners that is mostly used to assist them to use specific skills. Having being offered together with other evidence based practices, such as reinforcement and time delay, prompting procedures are usually offered by an experienced individual individual or peer. A prompt on the other hand refers to an instruction or a cue that is given to a person during or after an action or a response. This paper aims at discussing key aspects of prompting as one of the human behavior. During the development and learning process for the youth with autism spectrum disorder, various prompting procedures are adopted. These include least to most prompts, simultaneous prompting and graduated guidance among others. In order to help the learners to fully understand the concepts they are exposed to, these procedures are used by teachers among other practitioners through different forms of prompts (Milton and Mullan 23). The application of the procedures in a systematic fashion ensures that learners with ASD get the required skills. According to Liberman et al 46, prompts are adopted by teachers, parents, and coworkers as a way of showing others how to acquire a particular skill. For example, a supervisor who aims at improving the performance of his workers will need to explain to the new worker on how to access documents from the computer network. Similarly, a sales person may explain to a customer on how to use a mobile phone while at the same time demonstrating how its features work (Stark et al 23). The first category of prompt is verbal prompts. Under this category, teachers as well as other types of practitioners make statements that ensure that learners achieve their targets. For example, learners can be asked to write their names or be asked to try doing something in a different way (Abraham and Michie 36). The second category of a prompt is gestural prompts. This is whereby a practitioner or a teacher makes a movement that makes the learners to learn a particular skill or behavior. For example, a learner may be shown at the top of the paper where he or she is supposed to write his or her name. Another example of gestural prompt is where a teacher taps a student and point the coat closet making the student to hang the coat (Polaha et al 46). The third type of prompt is the model prompts. This refers to a situation where the practitioner or the teacher performs the skill or the behavior. In this way, the learner will emulate what the teacher is doing thus achieving the skill. In order to ensure that the learner easily understand the skill, the teacher may also use verbal prompts while performing the skill (Organ and Konovsky 15). One of the major aspects of this type of prompt is that if the skill involve moving parts of the body, full model prompt can be motor but if the skill being taught is verbal the full model prompt can be entirely verbal. The fourth category is physical prompts. This entails touching the learners in order to assist them to use the skill or the behaviors that the teacher is teaching. Examples include tapping the learner’s hand, or holding the learner hands to assist him or her to write his or her name (Hiralall and Martens 21). The fifth category is the visual prompts. This entails provision of pictures of events that happened in a certain place. In this way, the learner is provided with information that indicates how to use a particular skill or behavior. Examples of pictures include transition picture card and a job analysis checklist. The use of prompts to teach new skills One of the major aspects that make prompts to be important in teaching new skills is that any student who suffers from ASD can benefit during instruction despite his communication skills, age or cognitive ability. Additionally, prompts can be used at the same time or alone in order to make the effectively complete a certain task. A key point to note is that a teacher or any other petitioner should not repeat the prompts if the learner does not perform successfully (Fuchs et al 54). For instance, if by repeating a verbal prompt to make the student start his or her assignment does not provide positive result, it implies that a more intrusive prompt is required (Doebel and Koenig 19 ) One of the notable strategies that are adopted during prompting is least to most procedure. This implies that prompts are presented in a systematic way including gradual increase of assistance based on the level of the need for assistance. For example, if a student is given a verbal prompt requiring him to hang a coat but he does not respond within 5 seconds, the teacher may possibly use a gesture such as pointing the coat hanger and the coat. If still the student does not show positive results, another prompt that includes holding the learner’s hands and guiding him to place the cost on the hanger. Prompting procedures System of least prompts The system of least prompts (SLP) is normally used when there are other prompts and thus they have to be arranged in a hierarchical manner. This means that the system of least prompts will have to start from less to more prompts which must be restricted to the individuals. The system of least prompts ensures that the learner will be given the opportunity to a response which is correct but the learner must be least restricted to his or her need. In a class the learner may show a correct behavior during the class session where prompts may be involved or not but at the end, encouragement must be given via reinforcement (Collins 40). Verbal and physical prompts are normally used in the class which requires both to be used but in some cases the system of least prompts tends to be complicated. If non- systematic teaching is not used in the class then the teachers may incorporate the system of least prompts where the learner will be given the opportunity to display his or her behavior alone before responding. The prompts level may be verbal, gesture and physical which are used by the learners to attain skills. The system of least prompt can be used to provide instruction to one individual for multiple skills. New technology has incorporated the system of least prompts for example the use of DVD players. Most to least prompting The most to least prompting unlike the least prompting starts from the most restrictive to least restrictive arranged in the hierarchical manner. The most restrictive prompt must be physical prompt. This ensures that the learner get reinforcements from other students for example by holding the hands of the learner and take him or her to the front chair. This means the learner must receive reinforcement from other learners. After the physical prompt is over a less restrictive prompt is provided which is the verbal prompt. This means that a specific criterion must be provided or the prompt must be directed to a certain learner. For example, James open your book (Leaf et.al 52). This means that the prompt is directed to one individual and thus a verb prompt is going to be used. Finally, the less intrusive prompt is used if the learner fails to do what is he is asked by the teacher. This prompt is known as the independent which will be repeated until the learner get what was asked. The most to least prompting is used to train the learners with disabilities since it is routinely repeated. Additionally infants to their adulthood have used this independent prompt efficiently. Simultaneous prompting Simultaneous prompting is given to a learner after a test is provided by the teacher. In this session, the learner is not asked to respond to the responses while the session is in progress rather before a session is started; a test is conducted so that the teacher will know whether the learner got the right thing. The idea behind this is to known whether the learner has the right response depending on what is asked. This simultaneous prompting may seem to be confusing to the learners but it is used to make sure that the learner has the correct response depending on the prompt (Ingvarsson et al 41). For example, the teacher may ask the learner what color is this? Then the teacher may give the prompt “red” during the class session. Though it is not correct the learner will prompt the correct response during this instructional session the teacher will known whether the learner has the acquired what was taught in the session. The advantage of this prompting is that the learner does not require being having skills in prompting since it is not an independently prompt (Craig and McCann 61). No delay in the session since the prompt is for all the learners who are in the session thus the response will not have variations. No-No Prompting This errorless learning ensures that the learner is given an opportunity to respond to a prompt as the first option. Then the second attempt is given so that the learner will be successful to the response he or she is asked. This prompting is beneficial to the learner since positive learning is allowed depending on this environment of No- No prompting. This increases the learners’ capabilities since he or she is motivated until he or she will get the correct response (Caruso and Kennedy 56). In this type of prompting the teacher may draw certain objects in the white board then the learner may be asked to touch a certain creature. If the learner will not respond correctly then the teacher respond “NO” the same discriminative is repeated and when the error occurs the teacher respond again with a “NO” the third time means that the learner will get the lowest prompt and this will help to reshape the child. Finally, the child will provide the correct response and this will mean it would be difficult to forget it. The Effects of Instructional Prompts One of the effects of instructional prompt is that the method is an effective teaching method which helps to reshape the learner to attain skills (Gelf et.al 32). This is beneficial to the learners since assistance is normally provided to the learner incase the correct response was not attained. Another effect of instructional prompts is that the child is given that opportunity to independently carry that task alone and thus attains the desired behavior. This means that time delay is normal but finally the child will get the correct response after a number of trials (Sitzmann and Ely 99). Support from either the teacher or reinforcement from other learners encourages the student to keep on trying and get the correct response. This instructional prompts encourages a behavior that the learner might be willing to get it since he or she will get it through the support of the teacher or from other learners. It can be beneficial for the teacher to use full verbal prompts to make sure that each and every learner will get his or her chance to follow instructional prompts so that the learner will not depend on the others while prompted. Conclusion Based on the above discussion, it is clear that prompts are important part of learning process that teachers cannot overlook. Not only is prompting essential for young people with ASD, but also it can be used to teach young infants on various skills. Notable issue that teachers and other instructors should emulate is least to most procedure. This involves introduction of more advanced prompts until the learner indicates positive results. Works Cited Abraham, C., & Michie, S. (n.d.). A Taxonomy of Behavior Change Techniques Used In Interventions. Health Psychology, 379-387. And No-No Prompting In Two-Choice Discrimination Learning With Children with Autism. <i>Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,</i> 215-228. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from ERIC. Caruso, M., & Kennedy, C. (n.d.). Effects of a reviewer-prompting strategy on timely manuscript reviews. <i>Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,</i> 523-526. Retrieved September 19, 2014, from ERIC. Craig, C., & Mccann, J. 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