How Should an ABA Team Choose a Controlling Prompt?

Choose controlling prompt features

Specify the prompt form, intensity, timing, duration, position, response expected, safety constraints, and who may deliver it. Confirm the person can perceive it and physically respond without preventable strain.

Separate control from force

Controlling means the prompt is expected to produce the correct target response. It does not authorize restraint, forced movement, removal of communication, or overriding withdrawal. Physical contact requires specific competence, consent, assent when applicable, and risk controls.

Use professional scope

The BACB outline covers prompt assessment and fading. The Ethics Code addresses competence, medical needs, client involvement, assent when applicable, restrictive procedures, risk, and evaluation. These sources do not select a prompt for an individual.

Consider communication access

ASHA supports ongoing AAC access. In the telehealth study, visual and verbal controlling prompts were defined within the study procedure. A practice must verify that its chosen form fits the person's communication and access method.

A practical example

Jules can follow a visual model and finds hand-over-hand contact uncomfortable. The team tests the visual model across five teaching opportunities; it produces four correct prompted responses without distress. The fifth error prompts a procedural review, not added force.

Questions families can use

Why should this prompt control the response? Can the person perceive and tolerate it? Is touch involved? How can they pause or decline? Who is trained to deliver it? What evidence triggers a change?