Research on the System of Least Prompts (SLP) use with students with intellectual disability

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) recently reviewed the research on the System of Least Prompts (SLP), a practice that involves defining and implementing a hierarchy of prompts to assist students in learning a skill. To use SLP, an instructor delivers the prompts to students in order, starting with the prompt that provides the least amount of assistance, and providing additional prompts with increasing levels of assistance until the student can independently perform the task. For this review, the WWC focused on SLP’s impacts on children and students with intellectual disability. The results of the review are summarized in an intervention report released today, January 9, by the Institute of Education Sciences. There are no group design studies of SLP in the Children and Students with Intellectual Disability topic area and the evidence from single-case design studies does not reach the threshold to include single-case design evidence in the effectiveness ratings for any domains in the topic area. Based on this review, the WWC is unable to draw any conclusions about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of SLP on children and students with intellectual disability.  Read the full report and learn more about the studies that contributed to this rating.