Effects of Simultaneous Prompting and Instructive Feedback

This study evaluated the use of simultaneous prompting with instructive feedback. Children were taught to receptively identify rebus symbols. Information regarding the classification of the symbols was provided as instructive feedback during praise statements. Five 3-year-old children with disabilities participated, and a multiple probe design across sets of behaviors was used to evaluate the simultaneous prompting strategy and instructive feedback. The results indicate that (a) the simultaneous prompting strategy was used reliably, (b) all children learned to identify all symbols that were taught, (c) children acquired second and third sets of stimuli more rapidly than they did the first set, (d) some of the children acquired the classification information presented through instructive feedback, and (e) generalization across stimulus size occurred for all the children (three) for whom it was assessed. Issues for further research with simultaneous prompting and instructive feedback are presented.