Replacing overt verbal and gestural prompts with unobtrusive covert tactile prompting for students with autism

Verbal responses, gestures, and other physical stimuli are often used to prompt children to pay attention to their teacher, participate in group responding, and engage in independent activities in the classroom. Prompts can be intrusive and draw attention to the problem, however. In the present study, unobtrusive vibrating pagers were used to discreetly alert children to attend directly to the teacher or the ongoing activity, thus reducing the number of disruptions the children created in their classrooms. The children were then able to learn more effectively and with less interference to others in the vicinity. Specifically, 5 male children, between 4 and 7 years old, who attended a regular education preschool or regular education first-grade classroom, participated. An alternating baseline and treatment conditions design was used, in which periods of overt traditional prompting were alternated with periods of covert tactile and overt traditional prompting. The data showed that covert tactile prompting was successful in reducing the amount of overt traditional prompting that was needed for attention to a teacher, group responding, and engagement in independent activities.