Two instructional prompt fading procedures, increasing assistance and graduated guidance, were investigated to compare the efficacy and efficiency of both procedures in teaching leisure skills to adults with severe handicaps. These procedures were evaluated using a combination of multiple probe and alternating treatments designs. The results indicated that both procedures were effective in the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of the skills. The efficiency data are mixed in that while the two procedures were equivalent in terms of instructional time to criterion, increasing assistance required fewer trials to criterion than graduated guidance. Increasing assistance resulted in a larger percentage of errors to criterion than graduated guidance.
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