Instructional Prompts
Independence completing a task or exhibiting a behaviour without prompts or cues, is the gold standard of special education. The level of support falls on a continuum, with most intensive and furthest from independence, to least intensive.
Hand over Hand
This is the most intensive of the prompts. The teacher or coach may actually place his or her hand over the student’s hand. It works well with young students on the autism spectrum, older autistic students with unfamiliar tasks, and even younger students with immature and undeveloped fine motor skills. Hand over hand can be faded by lightening your touch to a simple touch on the back of a hand or arm to guide the student though the task.
Physical
Hand over hand is a physical prompt, but physical prompts can include tapping the back of a hand, holding an elbow, or even pointing. Physical prompts may be accompanied by verbal prompts. As the verbal prompts stay in place, the teacher fades the physical prompt.
Verbal
These are most familiar. We tell the student what to do: sometimes step-by-step, sometimes with more detail. Of course, if we talk all the time, our prompts get ignored. You can also design verbal prompts to fade from most complete to least complete.
Example:
“Bradley, pick up the pencil. Bradley, put the point on the paper. Circle the correct answer. Good job, Bradley: Now, let’s do number two. Find the correct answer, etc.”
Faded to:… “Bradley, you have your pencil, your paper and we have done these before. Please circle each answer and put your pencil down when you
are done.”
Gestural
These prompts should begin with a verbal prompt: they are easy to fade and are the least intensive. Be sure you don’t become so used to your verbal prompts that all you’re doing is running your mouth. Shorten those prompts and trust the gesture, whether it’s pointing, tapping or even winking. Be sure the student knows what you are requesting with the prompt.