evaluation of prompting and fading procedures in teaching socially significant skills to a student with autism

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20001217

This study compared three methods of prompting and three methods of fading procedures in teaching one student with autism to successfully build plastic building block constructs, fold pants, and fold a shirt. Three experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 compared verbal, model, and manual guidance prompts to determine the prompt with which the participant acquired the behavioral chain most rapidly. Experiment 2 used these prompt type results to compare most-to-least, least-to-most, and time delay fading procedures to determine with which method the participant acquired the chain most rapidly. Experiment 3 used the most and least effective prompt type and fading procedure to teach pants and shirt folding to the participant. Results showed that the participant learned to fold pants using the most effective method, and did not learn shirt folding until the most effective method was applied.