The effects of prompting question-asking upon on-task behavior and reading comprehension

Area of Science:

• Special Education
• Educational Psychology
• Applied Behavior Analysis

Background:

• Students with emotional and mental retardation (EMR) often exhibit limited question-asking behaviors.
• Pre-intervention data indicated declining reading comprehension and on-task performance in the selected students.
• A need was identified for effective strategies to promote student inquiry and engagement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of a teacher-implemented prompting procedure.
• To train students with EMR to initiate question-asking.
• To assess the impact of the intervention on reading comprehension and on-task behavior.

Main Methods:

• Employed a prompting procedure implemented by teachers.
• Selected two students from a special class (EMR) who did not ask questions.
• Collected baseline data on question-asking, reading comprehension, and on-task behavior.

Main Results:

• The prompting procedure was effective in initiating question-asking behavior.
• Significant increases in reading comprehension were observed post-intervention.
• On-task behavior also showed improvement following the implementation of the prompting strategy.

Conclusions:

• Teacher-implemented prompting is a viable strategy for increasing question-asking in students with EMR.
• The intervention positively impacted academic and behavioral outcomes.
• Further research could explore generalization and maintenance of these effects.