Evaluation of multiple‐alternative prompts during tact training

Leaf and team compared two ways to teach new words to kids with autism.

One way was the classic echoic prompt: the teacher says “apple,” the child repeats, then says “apple” when shown the fruit.

The other way was a multiple-alternative prompt: the teacher shows three pictures, says “apple,” and the child points to apple, then says “apple.”

They flipped the two methods back-to-back in the same session to see which one stuck longer.

Both prompting styles beat doing nothing.

Kids learned the new labels either way.

The twist: weeks later, the children kept more words taught with the multiple-alternative prompt.

Teaching time and errors stayed the same, but the memory lasted longer.

Goodwin et al. (2012) tried echoic-only versus echoic-plus-model prompts for wh-questions and saw no extra gain from the add-on.

Leaf et al. (2016) now shows echoic prompts can be outdone if you swap in a choice prompt instead of adding more echoics.

Fuller et al. (2018) found that a tough 90 % mastery bar helps kids keep skills.

Together, these papers say both HOW we prompt and WHEN we stop matter for long-term recall.

You can get better maintenance without longer sessions or more errors.

Next time you run tact trials, try showing two or three pictures, giving the label, and having the child point first, then say the word.

Fade the pointing prompt, but keep the brief choice step.

One small tweak may save you re-teaching time later.