Delayed prompting: a review of procedural variations and results

The delayed prompt procedure transfers stimulus control via the introduction of a time delay between the presentation of a stimulus and a prompt. This procedure has received increasingly greater attention in the literature during the past decade. The present paper reviews 26 studies that used the delayed prompt procedure in applied and laboratory settings. Subjects included developmentally disabled children and adults as well as children of normal intelligence who were taught a wide variety of tasks. Procedural variations across studies were noted in delay length and ceiling, criterion for increasing the delay, mastery criterion, and error correction. Results suggest that the delayed prompt procedure is an efficient teaching stategy, with subjects typically acquiring discriminations within a few training sessions or limited number of trials. However, not all subjects have benefited from the procedure. Additionally, little maintenance data have appeared in the literature, raising questions about long-term effectiveness. Alternative explanations for the reported success of the procedure as well as future areas of research are discussed.