Association for Behavior Analysis International

t has long been hypothesized that some individuals with developmental delays exhibit signs of prompt dependency. That is, they will engage in behaviors to be prompted or are reluctant to move on in skill training when prompts are faded. One hypothesis is that prompts, which are often described as antecedent stimuli, are , in fact, consequent stimuli in that they are contingent on errors or behaviors that are maintained by prompts. However, there little research has been done exploring prompts acting as reinforcers. By assessing for prompt-maintained behavior, our research has shown that prompts act as positive reinforcers for errors in skill acquisition programing. This research project replicated a previous study done by the authors and expanded the research to include more participants than in the original study. This study also expanded on the previous one by including different skill acquisition programs, rather than simple functional communication training.

This panel discussion is for practicing behavior analysts who wish to enhace the effectiveness of their services by understanding the role of prompts in maintaining errors and other similar response classes of behavior