Lesson 4: Chaining and Prompting Youre probably feeling a little unsure at this point because the last lesson

was the first time you had the chance to really use the information youve been given. In this lesson you get to build what you did and get to begin actually teaching. If youve already started to teach, thats great. This lesson is dedicated to building a skill, or behavior, from its beginning to the completion. Well introduce a simple concept called chaining. Then well go into the wonderful world of prompting, or some call it, controlled guidance. Both of these strategies help you guide your child through a task in a logical manner, which in turn helps them to learn in a comfortable, non confusing, logical approach. Through the use of chaining and prompting, your child will be guided through each step of a task successfully. As we go through prompting, youll learn how to select prompts; how to use them in whole and partial task formats and about physical prompting, both full and partial. In the next part of this lesson, well cover gestural and verbal prompting, prompting hierarchies and prompt fading. Lets begin with something basic, chaining. Chaining is a way in which behaviors or TA steps are linked together in sequence. What that means is that every task, or routine, is comprised of multiple smaller skills we talked about this in the last lesson when we talked about prerequisite skills. Each of those individual smaller skills must be put into sequence and hooked, or chained, together in order for the routine to be complete. Imagine a chain of links similar to what a tow truck uses. With all the links hooked together, you have a usable tool. However, if all you have is a single link, its probably not going to be of much use. In the process of teaching skills, the individual links are the prerequisite skills or the individual steps in a task analysis. They might not be too impressive individually, but once theyre put into a sequence and linked together well then you have something. Remember when we talked about the prerequisite, or sub skills needed for hand washing? Each one of those smaller skills, like reaching, pulling, grasping, etc. were great foundation skills, but needed to be plugged into a purposeful task to have real meaning. Many of them were generic and could be used in many tasks, but it wasnt until you put them into a logical sequence that they made sense. In essence, any task or routine is the sum total of individual behaviors. So lets take a moment and go over the hand washing steps again to see how each step is linked together. First the child reaches; then grasps the faucet; next he turns the faucet on; reaches to the soap dispenser; pushes the top of soap dispenser; rubs hands; and so on. As you can see, each individual skill is an important skill, but usually needs to be connected to

something else to have meaning. Chaining takes, in essence, meaningless behaviors and transforms them into a whole task. Its like magic. Now, there are two different chaining methods. One is called Forward Chaining. Forward chaining is the process of hooking each step or behavior in the normal sequence. So, moving from step 1 on your task analysis to the last step in sequential order. This approach to chaining is an approach that we are all very familiar with because most of us were taught in a linear fashion. Naturally, this probably the way youre already teaching your child. Weve all been exposed to and have used forward chaining all our lives its how weve been taught and subsequently how weve taught. Forward chaining is a great approach to teaching skills, but theres an even better one that is much more successful and less stressful for your child. This approach is called Backward Chaining. In backward chaining, we teach and hook together a task starting with the last step and then move sequentially backwards, just as the term implies, to the first step. I know, it sounds crazy, doesnt it? However, once you try this approach you will quickly realize that it is probably the best approach to teaching. Realistically, backward chaining is not appropriate for every skill youll be teaching. For instance, toilet training is not exactly something you can start from the end and move backward to the beginning. However, some of the prerequisite skills needed in toilet training, like pulling down your pants can be taught using backward chaining. Usually, at this point some parent will just assume that this is nuts and not give it another thought. However, let me share my personal experience with you. I, too, thought this was just illogical and refused to utilize this magical approach early in my career as a Behaviorist. Then I decided to give it a try; just to prove my boss was wrong about how effective backward chaining is. In an effort to disprove all the research, I gave it a shot. Well you can figure out what happened next; I very quickly became aware of how much easier skill teaching became by using backward chaining; easier for me and the child. I think my boss appreciated my new found insight as well. So, what were asking you do is give it an honest try. We believe that the benefits of using backward chaining will make you a believer as well. Youll see how quickly your child will begin to learn new skills and how much easier instruction will become. Before long, you ask yourself; How did I ever get by without this magical approach to teaching? If youre having trouble embracing the concept of backward chaining, dont fret about it; just make a commitment to giving it a real chance before you write it off as nuts. For example, an adult using backward chaining. She prompts the child through all the steps except the very last one, which he is learning to do by himself. Once he has mastered the last step, she will teach him to do the second to the last step by himself (putting the zipper into the slot). Once he

has mastered that, the teaching will focus on the step prior, and so until he is able to do all of the steps of putting on the jacket by himself. So, thats it on chaining. We will use the term consistently as we move through the material on prompting. At this point youve been introduced to chaining as a concept. When you start teaching and using the prompting strategies were about to give you, we will assume that you will be using backward chaining. Now lets move on and talk about prompting. First off, what is prompting? Prompting ensures success. Prompting is any additional cue or assistance that is provided to ensure your child will get the correct response, or produce the correct behavior. What this means is that as you begin to teach a behavior, you already know that your child will not be able to perform the whole behavior, or possibly any of the behavior. With that in mind, prompting should always be used when a new skill is being taught. You know that if you want your child to be motivated to learn new skills, theyll need to be successful so they can be rewarded. Prompting is the process of getting to success in any teaching interaction. However, part of effectively using prompting is the fading out of prompts as learning occurs. It is important to understand and plan for fading prompts in order to create independence for your child. Without this thoughtful and systematic use of prompting as tool, your child will become prompt dependent and being dependent is not independence. I know, it seems really obvious doesnt it? As you can imagine, or more likely know from experience as a parent, there are many types of prompts that can be used to help your child. The trick is in knowing how to select the appropriate type of prompt. As a general rule, before we actually define specific types, prompts should be selected based on: first; what is easiest to fade or transfer to a natural cue and second, what will work for your child. What are the specific types of prompts? Well start with the most commonly used prompts in teaching skills. First well consider full physical assistance or hand-over-hand prompting. This is where you, as the teacher, guide your child through the entire behavior. We frequently refer to this process as: motoring through the task. When you use a full physical prompting approach, you are not expecting your child to do any individual step independently. You might be asking why you would do this. The answer is that you want to ensure success in every step. If you can guarantee each step is successful, your child will quickly learn how to experience complete success. When you allow your child to make sporadic attempts at individual steps of a behavior, you increase the opportunity for him or her to stumble, or worse, fail. If this occurs, then you have to back track and this delivers the wrong message to your child that message being, I cant do this. When you are teaching a skill from scratch, meaning that your child has

never performed the behavior, the last thing you want is for your child to acquire a sense of cant do. You want them to think, I can do this. Next, well talk about partial physical assistance, or partial physical prompting. In a partial prompting approach, you provide some physical guidance to your child. By some physical guidance, you might lightly put some pressure on your childs elbow to prompt them to reach or tap their foot to get them to lift it so you can help them put on their shoes. The idea here is to provide minimal assistance only as needed. As you can imagine, based on what we just discussed regarding full physical prompting, partial physical prompting is used on skills where your child has already mastered some of the prerequisite skills needed or to jog their memory if he or she seems to get stuck within the task. Because partial prompting is used as needed, it tells you that your child must already have some of the individual components of a task in their tool kit. Hand Washing Example In this video we want to pay attention to how the mother uses multiple prompts. The mother is using a technique called graduated guidance. She begins with least intrusive approach and then moves to full physical prompting to ensure that her son is successful in washing his hands. Can you identify where she uses the partial prompt? Some important things you probably noticed in the hand washing video segment that apply to using physical prompting are: dont do the skill for them youre trying to train your child to do the skill on his or her own, so let them do as much of the skill as they can before resorting to prompting. Its also important to recognize that physical prompting is best in motor sequenced tasks; and something we didnt show, but is vitally important, is the idea that you should not use physical prompting if your child is resistant to touch or highly aggressive. In this situation, your child will likely become upset and resistant or aggressive, thus creating a negative learning environment for both of you. These 2 physical prompting strategies are the main strategies you will be using when you first begin to systematically teach skills to your child. However, they are not the only type of prompts that you want to have available to you. Youre going to want to have a whole of tools in your tool kit so you have options as you go along. Besides, not every skill will be taught best by or even require physical prompting.

Quiz 1. True or False: Prompting and Chaining are logical approaches to skills teaching. a. True b. False Both prompting, the delivery of assisting your child to get the right response, and chaining, teaching smaller steps of a task and then hooking (or chaining) them together to create the entire task are logical approaches to teaching. 2. The process of linking the steps in a task analysis together is also called: a. Chaining b. Hooking c. Knitting d. Coupling Chaining is the process of linking smaller steps in a task analysis together to create the whole task. 3. Which of the following are correct? a. Forward chaining is a 1st to last step process b. Backward chaining is a last to 1st step process c. Backward chaining is a 1st to last step process d. Forward chaining is a last to 1st step process Forward chaining is a teaching process where you begin with the first step in a task analysis and work sequentially towards the last step. Backward chaining is a teaching process where you begin with the last step and work sequentially towards the first step. 4. Which of the following is an example where backward chaining is not appropriate? a. Eating with utensils b. Putting on a jacket c. Playing a DVD d. Urinating in the toilet Generally speaking, toileting training is best taught using forward chaining as are most biological functions. 5. When teaching a brand new skill, you should always use what technique? a. Trial and error b. Stop-and-start c. Prompting d. Visual cueing You want to prompt during new skills so your child is successful and does not get frustrated. 6. Full physical assistance is also referred to as: a. Hand-over-hand prompting

b. Forced compliance c. Motoring through the task d. Muscle prompting Both hand-over-hands prompting and motoring your child through a task is a process where you use complete physical assistance to ensure success, this level of prompting guarantees correct responses throughout the task. 7. When offering minimal physical assistance only as needed, you are using which type of assistance? a. Hand-over-hand prompting b. Partial physical assistance c. Motoring through the task d. Trial and error prompting Usually used when assessing current skill levels or when your child is having a momentary memory lapse and needs a little nudge. 8. Physical prompting is best used in what type of skills? a. Any and all skills b. Abstract processing skills c. Motor sequenced skills d. Forgotten skills Motor sequenced skills require physical movement, so using a physical prompt keeps their mind working in the motor response area. 9. True or False: If your child is resistive to touch or highly aggressive, physical prompting is best. a. True b. False If your child is resistive to touch or tends towards aggressive when being resistive, physical prompting may create more anxiety or frustration for your child, which will likely result in problems. For a child who is resistive to touch, you would likely want to use other prompting approaches. 10. Select the items below that apply/relate to full physical prompting. a. Hand-Over-Hand b. Motoring Through the Task c. Elbow Nudges d. No Independence e. Independence f. Maximum Assistance g. Some independence The correct answers are (a) Hand-Over-Hand, (b) Motoring Through the Task, (d) No Independence, and (f) Maximum Assistance. Hand-Over-Hand is the process of physically guiding your child through the task. This is a good idea when introducing a brand new skill. Full physical prompting is the same as hand-over-hand guidance. This term is generally used in issues of

minor non-compliance. However, its important to keep in mind that this doesnt allow for any independence. 11. Select the items that apply/relate to partial physical prompting. a. Hand-Over-Hand b. Motoring Through the Task c. Elbow Nudges d. No Independence e. Independence f. Maximum Assistance g. Some Independence The correct answers are (c) Elbow Nudges, (e) Independence, and (g) Some Independence. Physically nudging your child (like with elbows) is a partial physical prompt, which allows for at least some (if not complete) independence for your child to accomplish as much of the skill as possible.

In this lesson well begin with discussing gestural prompting, a common way in which to prompt others. The good news is that its a prompting skill that you already have, so we will teach you how to use it more effectively. Well also talk about modeling or demonstrating a skill as a means of teaching, and well cover verbal prompting. Again, something you already know how to do, were just going to help you utilize it better. Then well briefly talk about positional prompting. Well guide you through the process of fading your prompts, so your child can become more independent and end with prompt hierarchies. So, lets go over several prompting strategies that do not require physical assistance or can be used during the later stages of teaching a skill, once a child is starting to get more comfortable with the skill. To begin, lets talk about gestural prompting, which, as Im sure youve guessed is when you use gestures to nudge your child into performing a behavior. The purpose of gestural prompting is to provide them with additional information about the next step in the sequence or the task analysis. This may be the simple act of pointing to indicate what to do next or using other physical behaviors to give them a hint, like nodding in the direction of something or using pantomime to act out you want your child to perform. An example of pantomiming that comes to mind is when were teaching how to put a puzzle together; well frequently want the child to turn the puzzle piece around to make it fit, so well state the expectation of turn it around and then use our hands to imitate the process of turning something around. One word or caution when using gestural prompting this is something we tend to do without even thinking about it. We might look at the item we want a child to pick up or pick out when teaching them to tell the difference between two pictures. We can assure you that your child will quickly learn to watch your eyes because they will be providing a gestural prompt. This happens to us all and thats why we offer the word of caution. This type of prompting can be very subtle and is often unconscious on our part. One way to catch accidental prompting is to have someone watch you when youre teaching and point out any prompting you might be providing. This way, you can decide if your prompting was intentional or accidental. Or, you might video tape a teaching session and you can review it yourself. The next type of prompting is modeling or demonstration. In this approach, you model or demonstrate what you want your child to do You actually show them how to do it. The introduction to this type of prompting usually sounds like, Watch Mommy/Daddy do it. For this style of prompting to be effective your child should be good imitation or copying your behavior. Looking would certainly be a great skill to teach before you incorporate

modeling into your tool kit. However, if your child is naturally gifted at imitating, this might be a really good technique to use, or at least try. This is the most common form of prompting because verbal prompting is, at its core, telling your child what to do. You use words to tell your child what is expected. Because youre parents, were sure youre able to do this well. As parents we are constantly telling our children what to do. However, as simple as it sounds, there are some things you need to know about verbal prompting. First, this type of prompt can be very difficult to fade out when using it in a motor sequence. Your child will quickly learn to wait for you to tell them what the next step will be. Typically in a motor sequence, you want the sequence itself to provide the prompting. For example, once your child puts on their underwear, you probably dont want to have to tell them to put their pants on. One of the possible ways to manage this situation is to understand the difference between direct and indirect verbal prompting. Direct verbal prompting is when you literally state the expectation, like; Put your coat on or pick up your fork. With this form of verbal prompting you are not leaving any opportunity for your child to be confused with your expectation. Again, we want to be careful that we dont create verbal prompt dependency. Anyone who has known a typical teenager knows the frustration of having to spell everything out. Besides, who wants to sound like a drill sergeant or a nag? Indirect verbal prompting is the use of language, or words, to give a hint or to job their memory. This might sound like a question similar to; whats next, which indicates to your child that there is something else expected. Or this could be something like cheerleading where you might say: Cmon, keep going; this provides them with more information but doesnt spell it out. This is actually fairly common with parents. Have you ever gotten your kid to the door, realized they dont have their jacket and then asked, what about your jacket? You are actually telling them what to do, but the situation, being by the door to outside, and the mention of jacket triggers their recall of the task of getting ready to go outside. Again this can easily become a problem if your child does not learn how to remember what to associate with routines or other important information. In the jacket example, not only would it be helpful for your child to know that its a routine, but also if a jacket was needed by being aware of other cues, like 100 degree summer temperatures. Burnt out yet? Well, hang in there, were getting to the end of prompting strategies. Then well talk about prompt fading and prompt hierarchies and then youll be done with this lesson. The last major prompting strategy, positional prompts, is truly a common-sense prompting style. With this particular strategy, you will place the needed item closer to your child. If the needed item is closer, he or she will naturally choose that item. We use positional prompting all the time. Think about dinner with the family, where

do you put your water glass? Obviously, your water glass is closest to you, not the person at the other end of the table. The glass position lets you know which is yours without any confusion. When using a positional prompt with your child in a learning situation, you would place the needed item or possibly the next item closer to them or in another logical placement. Think about teaching your child to brush his or her teeth. Typically we hold the tooth brush in one hand and the tooth paste in the other. How might positional prompting help this teaching experience? Right, put the tooth paste on one side of the sink and the tooth brush on the other; your child will naturally pick up one then the other using both hands, one for each item. Lets see what positional prompting looks like in the real world. See, items are placed in a manner that prompts the child/person to follow a sequence of choices in order. In other instances, the position might be to simply help the child avoid making an error. You will frequently see this in a discreet trials based program, where most of the teaching happens at a table and involves teaching discrimination skills. So, now lets talk about prompt fading. Prompt fading is the process of systematically eliminating the prompt and transferring stimulus control to the natural cue. What this means is slowly moving away from the level of the prompt and allowing the natural situation to take the place of you having to provide the prompt. This can be done in several ways depending on what type of prompt youre using or by beginning to delay the use of the prompt. If youre using physical prompting, you might start by using a less firm grip while guiding your child through the task. By decreasing the intensity of the prompt, your child will be utilizing more of their own power to complete the task but youll still be ready to help them if they falter. Your hand would be hovering right above to help if needed, to keep the momentum of the moment. You might also decrease the intensity of the prompt by moving from a full physical prompt to a partial prompt, or moving from a partial prompt to a gestural prompt. Typically in this approach, you will have planned in advance when you will begin to fade from the full physical prompt to the lower intensity prompting. You would be able to anticipate when to fade by knowing how quickly your child has grasped similar skills in the past. In the beginning of skill training, you may not always be able to predict when to begin the fading process. In this situation, you just have to try and fade. If successful, you can move to the next lower level of intensity. If not, take a step back and try again later. If youre using verbal prompting, you will move from direct verbal prompts to indirect verbal prompts. With gestural prompting, the gesture will be less obvious, so instead of pointing directly at the item to be chosen, you might use a sweeping hand gesture across the table to indicate that there is more to be done. Another mode of fading prompts is to use graduated guidance. This is similar to the first example we just stated. As you are using a physical prompt and you realize

that your child is physically following through independently you may lighten up, or fade back, at the very moment you have this realization. As you can imagine, graduated guidance requires you to make moment to moment adjustments in the level of prompting youre providing. In the beginning, you might not have a good sense of how to fade in the moment, but as you begin to teach more frequently and across skill domains, you develop a sense of how to modify your prompting at any given moment. As a parent, usually all it takes is becoming comfortable with how you read your child during a teaching interaction. Most parents become very good at graduated guidance in a very short amount of time. In fact, most teachers in the home develop this sixth sense very quickly. Lastly, there is the process of using a time delay when using prompting to make teaching more effective. In this approach, youll systematically delay before you use the prompt. Remember the Mother teaching her little boy how to wash his hands? She didnt immediately deliver the gestural prompt; instead she nudged her sons arm with the soap dispenser, and waited to see if he would make the attempt himself. Then as she realized that he would not, she delivered the prompt. There are 2 ways to use time delay fading. You can use a constant delay, like say 2 seconds before you prompt, which may be in accordance with a processing delay; or you can use a progressive delay, which means you systematically increase the delay time as your child demonstrates that he or she is actually considering what to do next. Now in the second situation, you will need to be assured that your child is really thinking about what theyre doing. Its a fine line between thinking about it and losing interest, so be careful. Lets watch the following video segment to see how a fading procedure might work. The very last thing we need to talk about here is prompt hierarchies. Really, this is very simple, but important. When prompting, you can move in 2 directions; from most intrusive to least or from least intrusive to most. The 2 directions represent a hierarchy of prompting levels. On the surface this seems like an easy concept, but the key here is to know when to use which. First, when teaching a skill, you want to use a most-to-least hierarchy. So logically you begin with a full prompt and fade to a partial and eventually to a naturally occurring prompt. However, when you are trying to assess a level of competence by seeing how much your child can do independently, you would want to probe their skill level. In this case, you would use the leastto-most level of prompting. In the most-to-least hierarchy your goal is to ensure success of the skill. With the least-to-most hierarchy your goal is to assess levels of independence when your child is performing a skill.

Quiz 1. Pointing at something with your finger would be an example of what kind of prompt? a. Modeling b. Gesturing c. Verbal d. Positional When you are pointing at an item to pick up, look at, touch, etc. you are gesturing towards the item that will give your child a clue as to what is being expected of your child. 2. The purpose of gestural prompting is to provide your child with what? a. Additional information b. Show them how to do it c. An indication that you give up d. A sign of disappointment By gesturing, you are providing your child with some additional information that will help your child get the right response. 3. True or False: We need to be aware of accidental prompting through gestures. a. True b. False Frequently we provide our children with accidental prompts by looking at the correct response, or beginning to reach for an item before it is chosen, or might not realize that we are placing a correct response opportunity in the same location all the time. What were doing is eliminating the need to attend to the materials present and teaching our children to look for our clues. This could foster prompt dependency. 4. Showing or demonstrating a skill to your child as a prompt is also called: a. Modeling b. Gesturing c. Verbalizing d. Position Taking Modeling can be an effective training tool if your child has already learned how to imitate. Your child will need to be taught to look, listen, or feel first before modeling can be effectively used and this is usually a skill that is taught separately first before becoming a teaching tool itself. 5. True or False: All children with ASD are gifted at imitating. a. True b. False Imitation is a skill that often must be systematically taught to children with ASD. 6. Why is using older siblings to model skills a potentially positive way to prompt?

a. Older sibling know how to do everything b. Younger siblings dont care c. Most kids want to mimic the big kids d. Siblings should not be used Once your child has learned to imitate, it is common that she will want to mimic older siblings. This is the nature of children and your child with ASD is first a child and second a child on the spectrum. 7. Telling your child exactly what to do is also called ___ prompting. a. Modeling b. Gestural c. Verbal d. Positional Whenever you simply tell your child what to do using words, youre using verbal prompting. This type of prompting is what all parents use. However, you might need to teach listening skills to your child first. 8. True or False: The least common form of prompting is verbal prompting. a. True b. False Verbal prompting is the most common form of prompting used by parents and requires that your child have the skill of listening first. 9. When using verbal prompting it is best to do what? a. Use as many words as possible b. Use baby talk c. Use a loud voice d. Use simple language By using simple language, you are limiting the amount of information that has to be processed and understood and that results in less confusion or faster processing times. The more quickly your child responds, the less frustrating it is for you as the teacher. 10. The two basic types of prompting hierarchies are __ and __. a. Most intrusive to least and least intrusive to most b. Physical and non-physical c. Loudest to softest d. Front to back When introducing a new skill, you want to use the most intrusive prompting level to ensure success and then back off the level of prompting (fading). When working on a skill that has a history of practice, you want to use the least intrusive prompt because youre only wanting to give a nudge in the right direction.