An Example of Prompting and Fading: Teaching Little Leaguers to

Hit the Ball

Coach McCall was teaching first graders how to hit a baseball thrown by a pitcher.
Previously, the players had hit the baseball only off of a tee. Luke was a good baseball player
and a fast learner. Coach McCall told Luke to stand in the batter’s box, to hold the bat back,
to start his swing a little before the ball got to the plate, to swing level, and to watch the ball
all the way to the bat. The assistant coach, Dave, threw some pitches to Luke while coach
McCall stood nearby. Coach McCall praised Luke each time he hit the ball and continued to
give Luke instructions when he needed to improve his performance. As Luke hit the balls
successfully, the coach no longer gave instructions but continued to praise him for each hit.
Next up was Tom. He listened to the same instructions that Luke heard but could not hit
the ball. To help him, coach McCall provided more assistance. He pointed to where Tom
should stand and gestured how the ball would come in over the plate and where Tom should
swing the bat. With this extra help, Tom started to hit the ball and coach McCall praised him
each time. Eventually, Tom hit the ball without any extra help or instructions.
Matt watched and listened to coach McCall but still could not hit the ball. To help Matt,
coach McCall decided to show him exactly how to hit the ball. Dave threw some pitches to
coach McCall, who described the important aspects of his own behavior as he hit them. After
Matt listened to the instructions and watched the coach hit the ball, he was able to hit the ball
himself. Once Matt started to hit the ball, coach McCall didn’t need to give him any further
help (instructions or modeling), but he still praised Matt each time Matt hit the ball correctly.
Finally, there was Trevor. Trevor watched and listened to everything coach McCall was
saying and doing, but he just couldn’t connect. Because Trevor needed the most help, coach
McCall stood behind him as he batted. He put his hands over Trevor’s hands on the bat and
helped Trevor swing the bat and connect with the ball (Figure 10-1). After doing this a few
times, coach McCall backed off a little: He got Trevor positioned and started the swing with
him, but then let Trevor finish the swing himself. The coach then backed off a little more: He
got Trevor positioned and told him when to swing but let Trevor swing the bat himself. After
a few minutes, Trevor was hitting the ball independently, and all that the coach had to do was
provide praise each time.
Up to this point, Dave had been throwing easy pitches for the players to hit. Dave was
really close to the plate (he threw from behind a screen so he would not get hurt when the
kids hit the ball) and the pitches were slow and thrown right over the plate. Once they could
all hit the easy ones, Dave started to throw pitches that were progressively more difficult to
hit. First he threw them from farther away. Then he threw them faster. And then he threw the
pitches in more difficult positions. He gradually increased the difficulty of the pitches over
the next four or five practices, and the players continued to hit the ball successfully.
This example illustrates the behavior modification procedures called prompting and
fading. All of the things that coach McCall did to help the players hit the ball are prompts.
With Luke, coach McCall provided a verbal prompt: He told Luke how to hit the ball
correctly. With Tom, he gave a verbal and gestural prompt: He gave instructions and
motioned to Tom how to swing the bat. Coach McCall provided a verbal prompt and
modeling prompt for Matt: He told Matt how to hit the ball and showed him the desirable
behavior. Finally, for Trevor, coach McCall provided a verbal and physical prompt. With the
physical prompt, he physically guided Trevor through the correct behavior until Trevor could
do it himself.
What Is Prompting?
As you can see, prompts are used to increase the likelihood that a person will engage in
the correct behavior at the correct time. They are used during discrimination training to help
the person engage in the correct behavior in the presence of the discriminative stimulus (SD).
“Prompts are stimuli given before or during the performance of a behavior: They help
behavior occur so that the teacher can provide reinforcement” (Cooper, Heron, & Heward,
1987, p. 312).
In this example, the SD is the ball approaching the batter. The correct response is
swinging the bat to connect with the ball, and the reinforcer is hitting the ball and getting
praise from the coach.
However, if the correct behavior is not occurring (if the player is not correctly swinging
the bat to hit the ball), the behavior cannot be reinforced. The function of prompts is to
produce an instance of the correct behavior so that it can be reinforced. This is what teaching
is all about: The teacher provides supplemental stimuli (prompts) together with the SD so that
the student will exhibit the correct behavior. The teacher then reinforces the correct behavior
so that it will eventually occur whenever the SD is present (Skinner, 1968).
The use of prompts makes teaching or training more efficient. Coach McCall could
have simply waited for his players to hit the ball without any prompts and praised them when
they did so. But this trial-and-error process would have been quite slow; some players might
never have made a correct response. When coach McCall used prompts, he increased the
chances that his players would make a correct response. For different players, he used
different prompts (instructions, gestures, modeling, and physical assistance) to get the correct
response in the presence of the SD (the ball thrown by the pitcher).

What Is Fading?
Once the players were hitting the ball correctly, coach McCall faded his prompts.
Fading is the gradual elimination of the prompt as the behavior continues to occur in the
presense of the SD. Fading is one way to transfer stimulus control from the prompts to the S D.
Coach McCall gradually removed the prompts until the batters hit the ball without any further
assistance. That is, he stopped giving instruction and he no longer had to model the behavior
or provide physical assistance to help the players hit the ball. Once the prompts were
removed, the behavior was under the stimulus control of the SD. When coach McCall was
using a physical prompt with Trevor, Trevor’s correct behavior was under the stimulus
control of the physical prompt. That is, he could hit the ball only because the coach was
helping him. But Trevor cannot have the coach physically assisting him when he is batting in
a game; he has to hit the ball on his own. Therefore, teaching is not complete until prompts
are completely faded (help is removed) and the behavior is under the stimulus control of the
natural SD.
Consider another example of prompting and fading. Natasha, a recent immigrant, is
learning English in an adult education class. The class is learning to read simple words. The
teacher holds up a flash card with the letters CAR. When Natasha does not respond, the
teacher says “car,” and Natasha repeats the word “car.” The teacher holds up the flash card
again, and when Natasha says “car,” the teacher says “Good!” The teacher then repeats this
process with each of the ten flash cards.
What Type of Prompt Is the Teacher Using?
When the teacher says the word on the flash card, this is a verbal prompt. In this case,
the verbal prompt is also a modeling prompt. The written word on the flash card is the S D;
saying the word (reading) is the correct response for Natasha. The verbal prompt helps
Natasha make the correct response in the presence of the SD. But Natasha must be able to
make the correct response when she sees the written words without the prompt. To
accomplish this, the teacher begins to fade the verbal prompts. The second time through the
set of flash cards, she shows Natasha a flash card and, if she does not respond, the teacher
says part of the word as a prompt and Natasha says the whole word. The teacher shows her
the flash card again and Natasha then reads the word without the prompt. The teacher
provides praise for each correct response. The next time through the flash cards, if Natasha
cannot read a word, the teacher makes the sound of the first letter in the word as a verbal
prompt and Natasha says the whole word. The teacher then shows her the flash card again,
and she reads the word without a prompt. Eventually, Natasha will read the words on the
flash cards without any prompts. At this point, her reading behavior is under the stimulus
control of the written words, not the verbal prompts (Figure 10-2).
Engaging in the correct behavior without prompts is the goal of prompting and fading.
Ultimately, the SD must have stimulus control over the behavior. Prompting and fading help
to establish appropriate stimulus control. Prompting gets the correct behavior to occur; fading
transfers stimulus control to the natural SD
In this example, the teacher faded the prompts in three steps. First, she presented the
flash card and said the whole word. The second time, she said the first part of the word. The
third time, she presented the flash card and pronounced the first letter of the word. Finally,
she presented the flash card and said nothing. Each step was a gradual elimination of the
prompt. By gradually eliminating the prompt, the teacher transferred stimulus control from
the prompt to the SD (written word). In fading, transfer of stimulus control happens because
the SD is always present when the correct response is emitted and reinforced, whereas the
prompt is removed over time. As you can see, the prompting and fading facilitated stimulus
discrimination training: They made it possible for the correct reading response to occur in the
presence of the SD (word on the flash card) and be reinforced..