AN EVALUATION OF THE RELATIVE EFFICACY OF AND PREFERENCE FOR PROMPT DELAY PROCEDURES

Author

Stephanie Anne Hood, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

8-1-2011

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Behavior Analysis and Therapy

First Advisor

Baker, Jonathan

Abstract

Both response to intervention (RTI) and recognition and response systems recommend the use of evidence-based teaching strategies and individualized data collection to monitor the students' response to such strategies. In addition to the efficacy of interventions, individual stakeholders should have a voice in which intervention is implemented. Constant prompt delay and progressive prompt delay procedures have been routinely implemented and have been proven to be effective at teaching important skills to a variety populations; however, no objective data has been reported on the stakeholders' preference for such procedures. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the relative efficacy of as well as the relative preference for prompt delay procedures. Four preschool children experienced three teaching conditions: constant prompt delay, progressive prompt delay, and a control condition. A multi-element design was used to evaluate the relative efficacy of the prompt delay procedures at teaching pre-academic tasks while a modified concurrent chains arrangement was used to evaluate each child's relative preference for each teaching strategy. The results for efficacy of and preference for prompt delay procedures were idiosyncratic for all participants. These results as well implication of the results are discussed.