A comparison of antecedent prompt and test and simultaneous prompting procedures in teaching grocery words to adolescents with mental retardation

Both simultaneous prompting and antecedent prompt and test procedures were effective in teaching 4 adolescents with moderate mental retardation to read grocery sight words. An adapted alternating treatments design compared the instructional procedures. Data indicate that the antecedent prompt and test procedure was more efficient on measures of acquisition (i.e., required less training time: fewer sessions, and fewer errors to criterion). However, simultaneous prompting was more efficient on measures of maintenance and generalization. Students maintained target behaviors for up to 16 weeks after training and generalized their ability to read the grocery sight words across materials, people and settings. Discussion focuses on the differing acquisition, maintenance, and generalization data, teacher fidelity to both instructional procedures, and students' near-errorless learning.