Comparing Digital Stimulus Prompts to Teach Conditional Discriminations to Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Prompts are a common instructional component in skill‐acquisition programs for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Stimulus prompts are underused, likely due to limited contemporary guidance and challenges with their feasibility, making them somewhat enigmatic. Incorporating stimulus prompts into tablet‐assisted instruction could improve feasibility. This applied study compared two types of digital stimulus prompts to teach conditional discriminations to three children with ASD. A survey of popular children's tablet apps and games informed prompt selection, and we conducted a tablet‐based instruction readiness assessment. Using an adapted alternating treatments design with a no‐treatment control, we compared motion (within stimulus) and pointing (extra stimulus) prompts across multiple stimulus sets. Both prompts were efficacious for two participants after individual modifications, and there was little difference in efficiency. Neither was efficacious for the third participant despite multiple modifications. Findings contribute to research on digital stimulus prompts and systematic evaluations of skill‐acquisition procedures.