Teams should change errorless teaching plan design when prompt dependence appears, independent probes stay flat, errors rise, distress or withdrawal occurs, health or access concerns emerge, materials change, staff cannot implement the timing, or the client no longer values the goal. The clinician should identify the likely barrier, version the revision, retrain staff, and set advancement, rollback, and stop rules.
Use triggers to change errorless teaching plan design
Review the natural cue, response effort, prompt timing and salience, fading pace, reinforcement, materials, setting, staff consistency, health, and client input. State which hypothesis the revision addresses. A new prompt can raise accuracy while hiding the actual access or cue problem.
Make an interpretable revision
Options include delaying, shrinking, moving, or changing the prompt; clarifying the natural cue; reducing task effort; adding a client-selected support; switching teaching strategy; or pausing for specialist review. Preserve the old version and start a new data series when the procedure changes materially.
Use research as comparison
The Leaf trial found both compared procedures effective for a specific task while response patterns differed. The prompting decision review emphasizes learner, task, efficiency, and fading variables. The BACB outline and Ethics Code support evaluation and risk review without selecting one universal change.
Keep client feedback active
The ASHA AAC portal supports continual communication access. Ask whether the cue, prompt, pace, or goal feels clearer. Preserve help, pause, stop, pain, and different method throughout revision.
A practical example
After 16 teaching opportunities, Imani has 15 prompted correct responses but only 1 of 6 independent probes. The team delays the visual prompt, improves the natural label, and predefines a rollback if errors or frustration increase.
Questions families can use
Which trigger requires change? What barrier is being tested? What version starts now? Who needs retraining? Which probe measures independence? What result holds, rolls back, pauses, or ends the plan?
Sources
- Association for Behavior Analysis International, Basic Principles in Behavior Analysis
- Behavior Analyst Certification Board, BCBA Test Content Outline, 6th edition
- Leaf and colleagues, Comparing Error Correction to Errorless Learning: A Randomized Clinical Trial
- A Decision-Making Tool for Evaluating and Selecting Prompting Strategies
- Behavior Analyst Certification Board, Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts
- American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Finni resources
