A comparison of procedures in teaching self-help skills: increasing assistance, time delay, and observational learning

The effectiveness and efficiency of two prompt-fading procedures were compared during the instruction of two self-help skills to four pairs of developmentally delayed preschoolers. In addition, the effect of observational learning was examined. Within a combined multiple probe and parallel treatments design, one member of each pair received direct instruction on the two skills. One skill was taught using an increasing assistance prompting procedure and the other skill was taught using a constant time delay procedure. The other member of the pair was prompted to observe the instruction, but was not taught directly. Reliability of scoring and procedural integrity were estimated, and social validity of outcomes considered. Findings indicated a slight but discernible advantage of using the time delay procedure rather than the increasing assistance procedure to teach complex, chained-response tasks. Further, considerable learning resulted solely from the observation of instruction.