Prompting & Fading

Prompting and fading are widely used to build new skills by educators. A prompt can be defined, as a hint or antecedent meant to induce a person to perform a desired behavior that otherwise does not occur. Lots of antecedents affect the likelihood of a behavior occurring. So, while prompts are a useful tool in teaching, it’s important to wean the students off them very quickly.

You can wean your child off prompts by fading which is simply gradually reducing the strength of the prompt. Using the example “point to block”, you might gently touch the child’s elbow to induce him/her to point to the block, rather than using an HOH prompt.

Rules for Prompting and Fading
1. Define target behavior. We begin by defining exactly what behavior we want to change. In this case it means defining the behavior we want to prompt.
2. Identify suitable prompts. Choose a prompt that will reliably produce this behavior.
3. Prompt, reinforce and fade. The reason for prompting behavior is so that you can reinforce it. Reinforcement provides the motivation for the child to learn. Since the object of prompting is to get the behavior to appear so that you can reinforce it, it’s important to give the child time to respond. After presenting the prompt, you wait a few seconds before prompting again. The reason for waiting for the few seconds is to see whether the child will attempt a correct response thus letting you know what prompt level to use. As the target behavior appears, begin to fade the prompt.
4. Monitor results. This is essential to know you are progressing satisfactorily.

Here’s a question for feedback, once a child is prompt dependent, how do the educators stop this dependency?