THE EFFECTS OF VICARIOUS PROMPTING ON ATTENTIVE BEHAVIOR OF CHILDREN WITH BEHAVIOR DISORDERS

Vicarious prompting, reinforcing and labelling the appropriate behavior of a nontarget child contingent on inappropriate behavior of a target child, was assessed in two classrooms of children with behavior disorders. Vicarious prompts using social reinforcement alone were clearly effective in increasing the attentive behavior of one target child in Experiment 1. The children in Experiment 2, however, did not appera to be responsive to vicarious prompting. Comparison of the two groups suggests that vicarious prompting, a relatively subtle, indirect control technique, may be a low cost, positive, and effective alternative to other techniques under conditions in which the behavior of most of the group is attentive.