Verbal prompt
A response prompt in which the RBT uses spoken words, such as instructions, hints, questions or the first sound of an answer, to help the learner respond correctly.
Verbal prompts are spoken help added to the SD. A full verbal prompt states the whole answer or instruction ("Say 'apple'" or "Push in your chair"). A partial verbal prompt gives part of it, such as the first sound ("ap...") or a hint ("It's a fruit"). When the learner is expected to repeat the words, the prompt is an echoic prompt.
Verbal prompts are quick and easy to give, which makes them common, and they can be useful for learners with good language skills. Their position in a prompt hierarchy varies across plans: some treat them as less intrusive than gestures, others treat them as harder to fade.
Verbal prompts are known to be hard to fade. Learners can come to wait for the spoken cue, and RBTs may add extra words without noticing, such as repeating the instruction or saying "What's next?" These additions count as prompts and should be recorded as such.
It is important to separate the SD from the prompt. In "Touch the dog", the instruction is the SD; adding "the brown one, there" is a verbal prompt.
Example and non-example
| Example | The client is learning to answer "Where do you live?" The RBT asks the question and then says "Spring..." The client says "Springfield." The partial word is a verbal prompt. |
|---|---|
| Non-example | The RBT asks "Where do you live?" once and the client answers without help. The question is the SD, not a prompt. |
Don't confuse it with
| Discriminative stimulus | The spoken instruction that should evoke the response is the SD; extra words added to help are verbal prompts. |
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Test yourself
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Question 1When shown a picture of a bus and asked "What is it?", a client says "bus" only after the RBT says "bus" first. Without the RBT saying it, the client says nothing. Which stimulus currently controls the client's response "bus"?
Show answer
C: The RBT saying "bus". The response occurs only after the verbal model, so the prompt controls it. The goal of prompt fading is to transfer control to the picture and question, so the client says "bus" without hearing it first.
- A: The client does not say "bus" when the picture is shown alone, so the picture does not yet control the response.
- B: The question is asked on every trial, but the client answers only after hearing "bus."
- D: A reinforcer follows the response; it cannot be what occasions it on that trial.
Task C.7 · 40-hour curriculum section E
Answer every question to see your score.
On the RBT exam
This term belongs to task C.7 Prompting and prompt fading in content area C, Behavior Acquisition, which is 19 of the 75 scored questions.