Association for Behavior Analysis International

Prompt-dependency is a common problem amongst individuals with developmental disabilities. Individuals who are “prompt-dependent” often appear to simply wait to be prompted rather than engaging in the target behavior, regardless of the power of the reinforcement available to them for completing said behavior. Because practitioners cannot simply allow the individuals they work with to wait indefinitely, prompting often becomes a necessary component in these situations. In this symposium, presenters will posit that we should re-examine the way that we look at prompts and instead of only treating them as an antecedent to the target behaviors, should also explore their impact as a consequence for the behaviors occurring during this “active-waiting” period. Is it possible that the prompts being used to encourage the performance of a target behavior are actually reinforcing the active-waiting behaviors that precede them? Presenters will discuss ways to analyze and treat prompts as consequential stimuli, or reinforcers, and the types of treatment procedures that may be informed by this re-labeling.

Practitioners

Prompt maintained behavior is a commonly reported concern for individuals receiving intervention services (Hume, Loftin, & Lantz, 2009). Reliance on adult prompts can contribute to poor long-term outcomes for adults with autism. This study will evaluate the use of signaled extinction (removal of adult prompts) with the use of a work alone card to promote independence and reduction of emotional responding during various activities in which the participant had demonstrated mastery. The intervention was selected following a functional analysis on prompt maintained behavior. Signaled extinction versus a control condition will be evaluated using multielement and reversal designs across different activities with an adolescent with autism in a school setting. The results are discussed in terms of the utility for adolescents and young adults with histories of prompt maintained behavior.

Traditionally behavior analysts have evaluated prompts in terms of their stimulus properties as antecedent stimuli that evoke a desired response. Indeed, Cooper, Heron, and Heward (2007) defines them as "supplementary antecedent stimuli used to occasion a correct response in the presence of an SD that will eventually control behavior" (p. 287). However, prompts, specifically their termination or presentation, can also be consequences of behavior. For example, the termination of prompts is often an element of the "demand" condition in functional analyses, which have been studied extensively (see Hanley, Iwata, & McCord, 2003 for a review). Moreover, prompts can be delivered as an element of error correction. However, research has not yet investigated whether prompts, apart from other procedures, can function as negative or positive reinforcers. Thus, the current set of experiments evaluates the effects of prompt presentation and termination on tantrum and choice behavior.