Sometimes, people need a little help. They forgot where they placed something; or can’t remember the name of a co-worker’s significant other; or don’t remember a task’s due date. In these cases, the thing that needs to occur (i.e., finding keys) is not happening. What now? Do we get annoyed at ourselves or others? Maybe. But there’s a better way.

This is a job for prompts.

We add prompts to the environment before behavior occurs, making that behavior more likely to occur. For example, I can’t find my keys, my wife points to a nearby bowl, where the keys live. Or I’m teaching a student to shoot a basketball. We hold the basketball together, and I guide them to a correct shooting position.

Prompts vary.

Like the basketball example, I might hold the ball with the student (full physical). After a few shots, I move my hands and lightly guide (partial physical) the student’s forearm (they don’t need my help anymore). Someone points or gestures (gestural) to a spot on the store shelves, helping me find my favorite cereal. Or a newly hired painter watches (modeling) the supervisor paint, before painting on their own. It might be that the name of the book I’m reading is “on the tip of my tongue,” and you tell me “It is The Hap…” (verbal), guiding me to then say “Oh yea, The Happiness Trap”.

Great! But there’s a dark side (insert Star Wars pun). Once we start learning the skill and doing it on our own, we don’t need as much (if any) support – prompts can go away. Unluckily for us, prompts don’t go away on their own but need to be faded. You’ll notice in the basketball example how we moved from an intrusive prompt (full) to lesser support (partial). What if we didn’t fade? Say hello to prompt dependency. 

Prompt dependency hinders independence.

The desired behavior (e.g., shooting a basketball) only occurs when I provide physical or partial physical prompts. We can never get to full independence because the student is always waiting on us to help. We’ve taught the student, albeit accidentally, to only do things when someone is there to help. We must fade prompts, so they no longer occur. Otherwise, independence goes the way of the dinosaurs.

Prompts help us do things that we weren’t.

But the dark side is always lurking. Effective use of prompts and fading sets our folks up for independence and success.

“I get by with a little help from my friends.” Were The Beatles the first to understand the importance of prompts? Probably not, but I’m going to say they were – is there anything they COULDN’T do??