Prompt hierarchy

What is a prompt hierarchy?

A prompt hierarchy orders forms of assistance used while teaching a skill. It specifies how the instructor adds or fades help, with independent performance as an intended outcome.

Least-to-most and most-to-least prompting

Least-to-most prompting first allows an independent response and adds assistance if needed. Most-to-least prompting begins with stronger assistance and reduces it as learning proceeds. Delays can also create opportunities to respond before a prompt.

In Libby and colleagues’ studies, children with autism learned to build Lego structures under different prompting procedures. More initial assistance reduced errors but sometimes slowed learning. The best procedure cannot be inferred from intrusiveness alone.

Applied example

In the first Lego study, each target was an eight-step construction: select a base, then add seven pieces in a specified order and position. The structures were arbitrary rather than familiar models such as houses. Different, similarly difficult structures were assigned to the prompting conditions.

Most-to-least procedure

For most-to-least prompting, assistance began with hand-over-hand guidance and decreased through contact at the forearm, upper arm, and a light touch or shadow near the elbow, to no prompt. Two consecutive correct responses at the current level allowed less assistance; two consecutive errors led to more assistance.

Least-to-most procedure

For least-to-most prompting, the same assistance levels ran in reverse: the learner first had two seconds to act independently, then received successively stronger help at two-second intervals if no response occurred. Errors received immediate hand-over-hand correction.

Both procedures taught successive construction steps, moving on after two consecutive independent correct responses on the training step. The aim was building the whole structure independently, not merely completing it with an adult’s help. This is a description of the study’s teaching procedures, not a universal hierarchy for every learner or skill. A device that makes an alternative action impossible is a restriction, not simply another level of the same teaching hierarchy.

Why it matters

The procedure should specify the skill, assistance levels, fading rule, and evidence of independent performance.