A comparison of time delay and decreasing prompt hierarchy in teaching bed making and sandwich making to students with severe disabilities

The purpose of this study was to compare two errorless learning teaching techniques, time delay and decreasing prompt hierarchy, to determine which technique was more efficient in teaching students with severe disabilities. Four students were taught bed making and sandwich making using an alternating treatment, single subject research design. Efficiency was measured by (a) the average number of steps learned and (b) the average percentage of errors made, across activities. In addition, types of errors made during probe sessions and 4 week follow-up maintenance and generalization data was collected. Results indicated that there were only slight differences between teaching techniques across activities in (a) the average number of steps learned favoring time delay instruction and (b) the average percentage of errors made favoring decreasing prompt hierarchy instruction. Four week follow-up maintenance and generalization data indicated mixed results across students and activities. There were no differences in the average number of types of errors made during probe sessions based on the teaching technique used. A major finding indicated a difference in the average number of steps learned based on the activity being taught. Additional findings, limitations, and recommendations for future research were also discussed.