Comparison of response prompting procedures in teaching numeral identification to autistic subjects.

This investigation compared the effectiveness and efficiency (sessions, trials, percentage of errors, direct instructional time through criterion, and incidental information learned) of constant time delay and system of least prompts in teaching students with autism to name numerals. Two sessions were provided each day; one with constant time delay and one with system of least prompts. Two students learned 16 numerals, and one student did not learn any numerals with these two procedures. The parallel treatments design was used to assess the effects of the two instructional strategies. The results indicate that both procedures were effective in raising responding to criterion levels for two subjects. The constant time-delay procedure was more efficient than the system of least prompts procedure in terms of sessions, trials, percentage of errors, and direct instructional time through criterion. No differences in efficiency were found for the measure of incidental information learned.