Use of Systematic Prompting and Prompt Withdrawal to Establish and Maintain Switch Activation in a Severely Handicapped Student

Abstract

A study was conducted to train a five-year-old, severely handicapped boy to activate an adapted battery-operated and electronically controlled toy. To activate the toy the student was required to manually depress a Zygo tread switch which, while depressed, maintained activation of the toy. During the baseline condition the student was provided only with a verbal prompt (and the occurrence of switch activation was recorded). During three subsequent intervention phases verbal prompting only, and verbal and physical prompting conditions were alternated between daily morning and afternoon sessions. Training involved the use of verbal and three different types of physical prompts. Prompts were systematically withdrawn in two consecutive phases after the student's switch activation increased sharply. In the final condition a return to baseline (verbal prompts only) was instituted. The study yielded several interesting findings: (a) the physical prompting procedure was effective in rapidly establishing the response; (b) the response was later also performed when the student was given only a verbal prompt; (c) gradual withdrawal of physical prompting did not result in a concomitant decrease in the behavior, and (d) the behavior maintained during the final condition in which only verbal prompts were provided. The study indicates that systematic prompting, prompt fading, and the use of electronically mediated devices can be effective in establishing purposeful communicative and leisure behaviors in low functioning severely handicapped students. Implications are discussed for the widespread applicability of this technology.

Teaching Persons With Profound Multiple Handicaps: A Review of the Effects of Behavioral Research

“…Results of the Wacker et al study, which demonstrated that 5 students' manipulation of microswitches increased when the manipulation resulted in activation of mechanical toys, suggest that individuals with profound multiple handicaps can provide themselves with leisure entertainment using specific material adaptations. Similar results were reported by Meehan, Mineo, and Lyon (1985), who demonstrated the efficacy of a graduated prompting strategy for teaching a child with profound multiple handicaps to activate a microswitch. Green et al trained education staff to provide functional teaching tasks (instead of more traditional nonfunctional tasks) to their students as well as to manage student involvement with the tasks more efficiently through systematic and frequent prompting and reinforcing of students' attention to the tasks.…”

A Review of Evidence on Practices for Teaching Young Children to Use Assistive Technology Devices

“…Twelve studies (Behrmann & Lahm, 1983;Cook, Liu, & Hoseit, 1990;Daniels, Sparling, Reilly, & Humphry, 1995;Dunst, Cushing, & Vance, 1985;Ferrier, Fell, Mooraj, Delta, & Moscoe, 1996;Hanson & Hanline, 1985;Horn & Warren, 1987;Horn, Warren, & Reith, 1992;Light, 1993;Meehan, Mineo, & Lyon, 1985;Sullivan & Lewis, 1990 focused on teaching switch activation use to young children with disabilities in a variety of situations. A majority of the studies used single-subject designs (n = 6) or case study descriptions (n = 2); 4 were noncontrolled group research designs.…”

“…In addition, children's continued use of the switch provided opportunities to practice the motor response, although in these studies, the motor response used to activate the switch was already in the repertoires of the children. Only one single-subject study reported teaching strategies when the desired response needed to activate the switch was not in the child's repertoire (Meehan et al, 1985). A four-phase approach of systematic prompting and prompt withdrawal techniques was used to successfully teach activation of an adapted toy.…”

Technology Competencies for Teachers of Young Children with Severe Handicaps

“…May's research documented that the girl learned a cause and effect relationship between her head movement and that recording. The concept of environmental control was demonstrated by Meehan, Mineo, and Lyon (1985), who trained a 5-year-old boy with severe handicaps to activate a battery-powered toy.…”