Abstract
A study was conducted to train a five-year-old, severely handicapped boy to activate an adapted battery-operated and electronically controlled toy. To activate the toy the student was required to manually depress a Zygo tread switch which, while depressed, maintained activation of the toy. During the baseline condition the student was provided only with a verbal prompt (and the occurrence of switch activation was recorded). During three subsequent intervention phases verbal prompting only, and verbal and physical prompting conditions were alternated between daily morning and afternoon sessions. Training involved the use of verbal and three different types of physical prompts. Prompts were systematically withdrawn in two consecutive phases after the student's switch activation increased sharply. In the final condition a return to baseline (verbal prompts only) was instituted. The study yielded several interesting findings: (a) the physical prompting procedure was effective in rapidly establishing the response; (b) the response was later also performed when the student was given only a verbal prompt; (c) gradual withdrawal of physical prompting did not result in a concomitant decrease in the behavior, and (d) the behavior maintained during the final condition in which only verbal prompts were provided. The study indicates that systematic prompting, prompt fading, and the use of electronically mediated devices can be effective in establishing purposeful communicative and leisure behaviors in low functioning severely handicapped students. Implications are discussed for the widespread applicability of this technology.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.