A Comparison of Modeling, Prompting, and a Multi-component Intervention for Teaching Play Skills to Children with Developmental Disabilities
Modeling, prompting, and a combo pack all grow block-play skills—choose the one that clicks for the child in front of you.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Quigley and team tested three ways to teach block play to kids with developmental delays.
They used modeling alone, prompting alone, and a package that mixed both.
An alternating-treatments design let each child try all three methods in rapid rotation.
What they found
All three kids built more correct and independent block structures after each method.
No single method beat the others for every child; each worked well enough.
The authors say you can pick the style that fits your session time and staff.
How this fits with other research
Catania et al. (1982) used the same prompting style to teach tooth-brushing steps to typical preschoolers. Their 16-step chain hit 95% accuracy, showing the tactic travels across skills and populations.
Boudreau et al. (2015) also used an alternating-treatments design. They compared error-correction types during discrete trials and, like Quigley, found the best choice varied by child.
Jobin (2019) pitted structured DTT against naturalistic PRT for kids with autism. Again, no overall winner emerged; child-specific fit mattered most. These three studies line up to say “test and see” beats a one-size-fits-all rule.
Why it matters
You do not need to master every new package. If you already use clean prompting or clear modeling, keep doing it. Run a quick probe with a new child; if progress climbs, stay. If it stalls, swap to another method and watch the data. This saves prep time and keeps therapy moving.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Play skills are an essential component of a learner’s repertoire, allowing access to social interactions with peers and adults. Children with developmental disabilities frequently require explicit teaching to acquire play skills rather than acquiring them through natural learning opportunities. Without targeted practice, these deficits could continue to expand, separating the children from their typically developing peers. This study aimed to teach three children with developmental disabilities independent play skills in the form of building blocks with a diagram. We evaluated three methods of teaching play skills, prompting, modeling, and a multi-component approach, within an alternating treatment design to determine which, if any, is most effective. Each teaching strategy included a three-step prompting hierarchy and was paired with an edible reinforcer delivered following independence. Successful responses at the targeted prompt level resulted in verbal praise. Following intervention, the rate of successful responses and independent responses increased across all three participants.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2018 · doi:10.1007/s40617-018-0225-0