Prompt Hierarchy in a Special Education Classroom

It’s no secret that students need a lot of support in the school setting. The level support will vary from student to student and class to class. What’s important is to provide the supports to help each individual student be successful in the setting they are in. Today, I am going to talk about a prompt hierarchy. It’s important to offer the right amount not support and not over support these students.

What is a prompt?

A prompt is a cue that is given to someone when giving them a task. As a result of a prompt given, students will perform differently. Different levels of prompts can be used. Which prompt is used depends on the student’s level of independence with the specific skill that is being requested. A prompt increases the chances for the person to complete the task correctly.

What is a prompting hierarchy?

A prompting hierarchy is a simple way of organizing prompts to determine the amount of assistance that each prompt requires from the requesting person. Because of the clear hierarchy, staff will be able to work consistently with students to build independence.

What does least restrictive to most restrictive mean?

Least to most restrictive prompting promotes independence with students with special needs. Least to most means that several prompts are used to help the person learn a new skill. The requesting person will start with the least restrictive prompt and slowly move to the next restrictive. The requesting person will continue to introduce prompts one at a time until the person has completed the requested task.

What are the least to most prompts?

1. Independent

2. Gesture

3. Verbal

4. Visual

5. Model

6. Partial Physical

7. Physical

How to Implement a Prompt Hierarchy in the Classroom

If you are in a special education classroom there is a very high chance your students work with A LOT of adults in the school setting. It’s important that your entire classroom staff is on the same page when following the prompt hierarchy. This is where I would recommend posting these visuals around the classroom as well as providing a prompt flip book for added support. You can grab the prompt hierarchy flip book HERE in my TpT shop to help with consistency in the classroom.