Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities - Division on ...

search <strong>in</strong>dicates that it has been used successfully
with elementary-aged students <strong>and</strong> preschoolers
to teach both discrete <strong>and</strong> cha<strong>in</strong>ed
tasks (Ault, Wolery, Gast, Doyle, & Mart<strong>in</strong>,
1990; Dogan & Tek<strong>in</strong>-Iftar, 2002; Doyle, Gast,
Wolery, Ault, & Meyer, 1992; S<strong>in</strong>gleton, Schuster,
Morse, & Coll<strong>in</strong>s, 1999).
Schuster, Griffen, <strong>and</strong> Wolery (1992) found
simultaneous prompt<strong>in</strong>g to be slightly more
efficient <strong>in</strong> teach<strong>in</strong>g elementary age students
with moderate mental disabilities to identify
grocery words expressively. In an efficiency
study that has been reported to date, simultaneous
prompt<strong>in</strong>g was found to be more efficient
than constant time delay when the procedures
were used to teach grocery sight
words to elementary students with moderate
mental retardation (Schuster et al., 1992). In
the only study that has reported us<strong>in</strong>g simultaneous
prompt<strong>in</strong>g to teach a cha<strong>in</strong>ed task,
Schuster <strong>and</strong> Griffen (1993) found that the
procedure was effective <strong>in</strong> teach<strong>in</strong>g four elementary
students to make juice from frozen
concentrate. S<strong>in</strong>gleton, Schuster, <strong>and</strong> Ault
(1995) used simultaneous prompt<strong>in</strong>g to teach
two elementary students with moderate retardation
to expressively identify photographs of
community signs (e.g., stop <strong>and</strong> exit) <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>corporated
<strong>in</strong>structive feedback about signs
(e.g., ‘Exit means to go out’). Some of the
<strong>in</strong>structive feedback was acquired by the participants.
In addition, simultaneous prompt<strong>in</strong>g
has been effective when teach<strong>in</strong>g sight
word read<strong>in</strong>g to student with moderate mental
retardation at the elementary (Griffen,
Schuster, & Morse, 1998) as well as the high
school level (S<strong>in</strong>gleton et al., 1999).
Although limited <strong>in</strong> number, several studies
have reported the effectiveness of simultaneous
prompt<strong>in</strong>g when used <strong>in</strong> one-to-one
arrangements to teach discrete tasks. Gibson
<strong>and</strong> Schuster (1992) found simultaneous
prompt<strong>in</strong>g to be effective <strong>in</strong> teach<strong>in</strong>g three of
four preschool children with <strong>and</strong> without developmental
delays, to read nouns that had
been selected from storybooks. MacFarl<strong>and</strong>-
Smith, Schuster, <strong>and</strong> Stevens (1993) taught
three preschool children with developmental
delays to identify fruits <strong>and</strong> vegetables, while
Wolery, Holcombe, Werts, <strong>and</strong> Cipolloni
(1993) used simultaneous prompt<strong>in</strong>g to teach
five preschoolers with developmental delays to
identify rebus symbols. Wolery et al. also <strong>in</strong>cluded
classification <strong>in</strong>formation perta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g
to the rebus symbols as <strong>in</strong>structive feedback,
<strong>and</strong> found that participants acquired some of
this <strong>in</strong>formation when simultaneous prompt<strong>in</strong>g
was used. Tek<strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> Kircaali-Iftar (2002)
found that both simultaneous prompt<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong>
constant time delay were effective but simultaneous
prompt<strong>in</strong>g was more efficient than
constant time delay <strong>in</strong> term of the number of
tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g errors <strong>and</strong> tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g time through criterion
<strong>in</strong> teach<strong>in</strong>g three preschoolers with developmental
delays receptively identify<strong>in</strong>g animals.
Dogan <strong>and</strong> Tek<strong>in</strong>-Iftar (2002) found
that simultaneous prompt<strong>in</strong>g was effective <strong>in</strong>
teach<strong>in</strong>g three preschoolers with developmental
delays receptively identify<strong>in</strong>g occupations
from picture cards.
Students with mental retardation are likely
to have different educational goals. No study
was found that taught various tasks to each
student <strong>in</strong> the same study us<strong>in</strong>g one to one
<strong>in</strong>structional arrangement. Only two studies
were located <strong>in</strong> which different stimuli were
used to teach different tasks <strong>in</strong> a small group
arrangement. In the first study (Brown & Holvoet,
1982), one student was taught to open
an envelope, remove an advertisement, <strong>and</strong>
attach it to a cork board. A second student was
taught to manually sign ‘picture’ when shown
a photograph. In the second study (Fickel,
Schuster, & Coll<strong>in</strong>s, 1998), one student was
taught to identify expressively 12 unlabeled
outl<strong>in</strong>es of states from maps of the United
States. A second student was taught to verbally
state the sums of six addition facts. A third
student was taught to demonstrate the manual
signs for six communication picture symbols.
And a fourth student was taught to expressively
identify 24 national flags.
S<strong>in</strong>ce simultaneous prompt<strong>in</strong>g has been experimentally
evaluated <strong>in</strong> only a limited number
of <strong>in</strong>vestigations, the lack of research
where subjects are taught various tasks, <strong>and</strong>
absence of response prompt<strong>in</strong>g research with
students with mental retardation, additional
research is warranted (Dogan & Tek<strong>in</strong>-Iftar,
2002; Gibson & Schuster, 1992; S<strong>in</strong>gleton et
al., 1999; Tek<strong>in</strong> & Kircaali-Iftar, 2002).
This study addresses three research questions:
(a) Will simultaneous prompt<strong>in</strong>g be effective
<strong>in</strong> teach<strong>in</strong>g different discrete tasks to
three students with mental retardation for
read<strong>in</strong>g sight words, receptively identify<strong>in</strong>g
digit numbers, <strong>and</strong> tell<strong>in</strong>g time <strong>in</strong> hours,
halves, <strong>and</strong> quarters? (b) Will students ma<strong>in</strong>-
Simultaneous Prompt<strong>in</strong>g for Teach<strong>in</strong>g Discrete Tasks / 69