Comparison of Prompting Strategies on the Acquisition of Daily Living Skills

Abstract

Determining the most effective prompting strategies to be used for individuals with significant intellectual disability can assist in the acquisition of skills, reduction of errors, and avoidance of prompt dependency. However, few studies have directly compared the effects of different prompting strategies to determine which are the most effective. In the present study, physical only and physical plus vocal prompting strategies were compared to determine if one led to more efficient acquisition of two folding tasks than the other. An alternating treatments design was used with two individuals with significant intellectual disability, whereby the prompting strategies were counterbalanced across folding a shirt and folding a pair of pants. Results demonstrated that both strategies were equally effective for one participant, whereas the physical only prompting strategy may have been the more effective strategy for the second participant. The results suggest that pairing vocal instructions with a physical prompting strategy neither inhibits nor assists the acquisition of daily living skills for individuals with significant intellectual disability.