Comparing the effects of echoic prompts and echoic prompts plus modeled prompts on intraverbal behavior.

The team worked with one teen who has Down syndrome.

They wanted to teach him to answer questions like “Where do you sleep?” and “What do you drink?”

Each session they switched between two prompt styles: echoic only (they said the answer first) or echoic plus a picture or gesture.

They counted how many correct answers happened with each style.

Both styles worked.

The teen learned to answer the questions no matter which prompt the teacher used.

Adding the picture or gesture did not give an extra boost.

Falcomata et al. (2012) also ran an alternating-treatments study on intraverbals in 2012.

They changed the praise instead of the prompt and still saw gains, showing the whole intraverbal package is robust.

Leaf et al. (2016) later asked, “What if we drop echoic prompts for tacts?” They found kids kept the labels longer with a different prompt style.

Together the three studies say: echoic prompts are fine for intraverbals, but for tacts you might switch tactics.

You can save time and materials.

If a learner with Down syndrome echoes your voice, you do not need to add pictures or signs for simple “wh” questions.

Start with echoic prompts alone, take data, and only add visuals if progress stalls.

This keeps instruction lean and gets the same win.