Increasing Pizza Box Assembly Using Task Analysis and a Least-To-Most Prompting Hierarchy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a least-to-most prompting hierarchy was effective in teaching students with intellectual disabilities to increase the number of task-analyzed steps independently completed related to folding a pizza box as a potential pre-vocational task. An additional and related purpose of this study was to determine whether a least-to-most prompting hierarchy was effective for improving these students’ productivity while decreasing the level of least-to-most prompts required to complete task-analyzed steps of a pizza box assembly task. A multiple-baseline design across subjects was used to analyze the effectiveness of the implementation of a least-to-most prompting hierarchy. Results of this study indicated that the use of a task analysis and a least-to-most prompting hierarchy was effective in teaching individuals with intellectual disabilities pizza box assembly skills. Implications and recommendations for the use of a task analysis with least-to-most prompts for teaching complex vocational tasks to individuals with intellectual disabilities as well as possibilities for future research were also discussed.

Keywords:

• Least-to-most prompts
• task analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to show their appreciation to Dr. Monica Iverson and Dr. Lisa Hazlett, of the Division of Curriculum and Instruction, and Dr. Eric Kurtz, of the South Dakota Center for Disabilities, all of whom are part of the faculty at the University of South Dakota, for their support, encouragement, and assistance throughout this research project.