NetWellness: Help for child's autism behavior (The Cincinnati Post)
Ask the expert
By Dr. Eric Butter
Q: I have a 6th grade student with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). He has become increasingly prompt dependent. For example, if you tell him to go wash his hands because they are dirty, he will walk out of the room and stand in front of the sink with his hands under the running water and wait for you to come out and tell him to dry his hands. There is a task analysis chart in front of the sink, but he doesn't respond to this now. Do you have any suggestions? This problem is affecting almost all areas and he can no longer answer simple questions or make choices.
A: Prompt dependency is a difficult problem to solve, but one that can be solved in most instances. Here are some ideas:
Create and use a prompt hierarchy. First, list all variety of possible prompts for the specific task in question, from full physical, partial physical, gesture, shadow, point, tap, visual, pictorial, verbal, partial verbal, stimulus, etc. Second, organize these prompts in a least intrusive (least helpful) to most intrusive (most helpful) format; this will differ for every child and every task.
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Rises as gladly in the single tree
As in the whole orchards resonant with bees."
- Emerson
19 Dec 2007, 10:19 am
