Teaching skills through the enhancement of natural antecedents

The manipulation of the natural antecedents of a task offers a potentially valuable alternative to teaching strategies requiring the presentation of additional prompting stimuli, particularly in work with individuals with severe learning difficulties. The utility of procedures involving the enhancement of natural antecedents has frequently been demonstrated, but this has generally been with respect to tasks of limited ecological validity. This study reports an attempt to teach coat-buttoning skills to two women with severe learning difficulties using an antecedent enhancement procedure. Manipulation of the natural antecedents of coat buttoning produced swift acquisition of the required component responses in both subjects. Further, these skills generalized successfully across both materials (other coats) and time (6-month follow-up). Such antecedent enhancement procedures may be of particular value to the extent that they offer a consistent means of presenting subtle, interactive interventions without requiring advanced teaching skills on the part of staff.