A comparison of prompting methods to teach sight words to students with autism spectrum disorder
Both prompting styles usually work for sight words in autism, but be ready to switch to a receptive task if the child stalls.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Klaus et al. (2019) compared two ways to teach sight words to kids with autism.
They used progressive time delay and simultaneous prompting in an alternating-treatments design.
Three children took part; the team tracked how fast each child learned new words.
What they found
Two kids learned just as well with either method.
One child did not learn with either prompt, so the team switched to a receptive task and stimulus fading.
No single prompt won on speed for any learner.
How this fits with other research
Coleman et al. (2015) already showed that simultaneous prompting works for sight words in autism.
Schnell et al. (2020) later showed a quick test can pick the best prompt for each child.
Klaus et al. (2019) sits between these studies: it confirms simultaneous prompting works, but also shows you may need to pivot if a child stalls.
May (2011) reviewed nine studies and said massed trials with prompts and reinforcement teach sight words; Klaus adds a head-to-head prompt comparison to that base.
Why it matters
You can start with either progressive time delay or simultaneous prompting for sight words.
Watch the data session-by-session.
If the child flat-lines, drop the expressive reading goal and try a receptive listener task with stimulus fading.
This plan saves time and keeps the child moving forward.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Time delay procedures are one of the most commonly used and effective strategies for teaching sight words to learners with disabilities. However, less is known about whether they are differentially effective and efficient with learners. This study compared the effectiveness and efficiency of progressive time delay and simultaneous prompting on sight word acquisition among three learners with autism spectrum disorder using an adapted alternating treatments design across word sets. For two participants, both procedures led to skill acquisition with no clear differences in efficiency. For the remaining participant, neither procedure was effective; therefore, the reading task was changed to a receptive one, and a stimulus fading intervention package was implemented.
Behavioral Interventions, 2019 · doi:10.1002/bin.1667