Observations of a child conducted often enough, for long enough periods, and in representative situations so that the data accurately portray what the child does.

The adult provides verbal, nonverbal, and physical prompts to help a child learn and develop a skill. Help enables the child to perform a skill more accurately, completely, or independently.

The adult requests that the child repeat what he said because it was not initially heard or understood.

The adult requests that the child say or do something that is more complex than what she originally said or did. Requests for elaboration may range in difficulty and should be related to the child’s original response.

Planned consequences used to motivate a child until a skill is mastered well enough to provide its own natural reinforcers. Stickers, food items, games, or other rewards that have nothing to do with the task, but which children are willing to work for, are examples of artificial consequences.

Measurements of behavior, repeated over time, to determine how often, how long, and/or when a behavior is occurring.

Child characteristics are a child’s typical or usual behavior patterns.

The child begins a communication, typically by using words, gestures, or gaining eye contact.

A child’s attention to an object, event, person, or interaction. The attention may take different forms such as looking at or listening to something or someone, manipulating or reaching for an object, pointing, or saying something.

Evidence that a child is mastering a skill, based on observations that he exhibits the skill more independently, more correctly, or more often in situations when it is needed.

The child says or does something after the adult request for elaboration or adult help.

A technique for creating teaching opportunities based on a child’s interest. The adult offers a child a choice between different objects, events, or activities, or between similar objects that differ in some way such as in size, shape, color, or number.

“Development of skills such as attending to stimuli, noting similarities and differences between stimuli, cross modal perceptions, remembering, thinking, reasoning, problem solving, and many similar abilities” (Harris, cited in Bailey & Wolery, p. 522).

“Development of skills such as attending to stimuli, noting similarities and differences between stimuli, cross modal perceptions, remembering, thinking, reasoning, problem solving, and many similar abilities” (Harris, cited in Bailey & Wolery, p. 522).

A technique for creating teaching opportunities based on a child’s interest. The adult makes a statement about what the child has, sees, or does or about what she herself has, sees, or does. This technique may also be called self-talk or parallel talk.

“A speaker’s ability to effectively communicate an intentional message so as to alter the listener’s attitudes, beliefs, and/or behaviors. A very young child can thereby be communicatively competent with a minimal development of linguistic skills” (Nicolosi, Harryman, & Kresheck, p. 62).

“A prompt that directs attention to a particular dimension of a stimulus or task” (Noonan & McCormick, 1993, p. 169).

The form and level of help a child requires to complete a task without mistakes before you begin your planned help strategy.

The time between the natural cue and when help is provided by the adult. It is also referred to as wait time.

A pattern some children develop of waiting for adults to help them. They do not practice skills in response to natural cues without help. Providing help immediately following the natural cue can avoid the development of the pattern. This help should be sufficient for the child to do what is required and experience a positive result. Help must be gradually withdrawn over time in order for the child to become independent.

Growing, maturing, and/or displaying a more complex set of skills.

Specific cognitive, language, motor, social-emotional, and self-help skills that children exhibit as they grow, usually described according to the age range when children typically display them.

A form of prompting. The adult tells the child how to do something by describing what to do. This is contrasted with indirect verbal help in which the adult implies that the child is to do something but does not tell him what he is to do.

A measure of how long a specific behavior lasts.

Involvement through situationally appropriate interactions with the physical environment, materials, or other persons.

“Procedures based on the notion that learning will be more rapid and efficient if the teaching situation can be arranged to prevent errors” (Bailey & Wolery, 1984, p. 63).

Common events that children do on a regular basis at home, in their community, or in their classroom.

Routines are activities that are regularly performed. Often they accomplish necessary functions like eating, washing, or preparing to sleep. These help the child develop expectations about activities and events that will occur and when they will occur each day.

Common environments within which activities occur. These are sometimes called activity settings.

A technique for creating teaching opportunities based on a child’s interest. The adult restates what the child has said and adds one or two additional words. An expansion may include particular forms intended to teach language as stated in a child’s objective.

A form of prompting. The adult looks at what the child is looking at or at the task the child should perform and then looks at the child as if to say, “What do you need to do?” or “What do you want?”

“Services that assist families in their efforts to make decisions and secure services for themselves. . .Families become the focal point [of services] around which decisions about goals and services are made” (Bailey & Wolery, p.36).

Skills that use small muscle groups to engage in manipulation, grasping, reaching, or releasing.

There are four basic forms of help, often referred to as prompts: physical help, modeled help, verbal help, and nonverbal help.

Used to measure the number of times a behavior happens in a period of time.

A form of prompting. The adult shows the child exactly how to do or say something by demonstrating the desired action.

A form of prompting. The adult provides full physical support for gross motor tasks or physically guides the child to complete a fine motor task by assisting her or him with hand-over-hand guidance.

Prompts in which the adult establishes eye contact with the child and uses hand movements that are understood by the child to have a certain meaning. Gestures suggest what the child is to do.

A technique for creating teaching opportunities. The adult gives a child a smaller portion of the desired object than she wants.

Skills that use large muscle groups coordinated to perform activities such as walking, crawling, sitting, or standing.

A form of prompting. The adult uses full physical help and guides the child’s response by holding onto the child’s hand and directing it in the appropriate action.

Verbal, nonverbal, and physical prompts to assist children in learning and developing the skills described by their objectives. Help enables the child to perform a skill more accurately, completely, or independently.

A systematic plan for providing help to a child over a period of time. Three help strategies are most-to-least, least-to-most, and progressive time delay.

An Individualized Educational Program is designed for each student receiving special education services. It outlines specific “learning goals, prescribes educational services, and delineates assessment procedures to be used for placement decisions and evaluation of the program’s success.” (Cangelosi, 1988, p. 361)

For more information, visit the Family Village website:
Family Village School

A Comparison of IEPs and IFSPs
A Comparison of IEP and IFSP Components by the West Virginia Early Childhood Steering Committee

A plan on which services to infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families are based. This is required by law. “The plan must include services needed not only to maximize the development of the child, but also to optimize the family’s capacity to address the child’s special needs.” (Paul, p. 190).

For more information, visit the following websites:
The Individual Family Service Plan by Mary Beth Brudner

Nebraska's IFSP Online Assistance Program

Birth to Three - Especially for Families

A Comparison of IEPs and IFSPs
A Comparison of IEP and IFSP Components by the West Virginia Early Childhood Steering Committee

An interaction between an adult and child that occurs in a natural situation and which is used to give the child an opportunity to practice a skill. An episode of incidental teaching begins when the child initiates for interaction with the adult (Hart & Risley, 1975).

A technique for creating teaching opportunities. The adult gives some but not all items needed for an activity. The activity and pertinent items should be something familiar to the child.

“The ability to function while depending as little as possible on help from other people” (Bailey & Wolery, p.39).

Something a child does without help.

A form of prompting. The adult uses words that indicate that the child is to do something, but do not specify exactly what. The help might be a comment that is directed to someone other than the child regarding what he is to do or say. It might be a question such as “What do you need to do first?”

A child or adult begins a communication, typically by using words, gestures, or gaining eye contact.

Using language or gestures to communicate with other people. Interaction may also refer to manipulating objects in the environment.

A planned action or interaction to assist a child in developing particular skills and abilities. An intervention begins with an individual plan that is made up of goals and objectives.

When both adult and child are looking at or engaged with the same object or activity, they are said to share a joint focus of attention. If teaching occurs when there is joint focus, the adult can assume that the child is interested in the activity and likely to be responsive to instruction.

A series of two or more forms or levels of help arranged to provide progressively increasing amounts of assistance. The sequence begins with an opportunity for the child to respond to a natural cue. If she does not respond correctly, she is given less help than she may need to challenge her to complete the task independently. Increasing amounts of help are given, if needed, until she is able to complete the task correctly.

A measure used to keep track of support for behaviors that can occur if a child is given enough help. A level of help record can be used to collect data about the form of help (physical, modeled, verbal or nonverbal) and level of help (full or partial, direct or indirect) that a child requires for a complete and correct behavior to occur.

Different intensities within each of the forms (physical, model, verbal) of help. These intensities are full, partial, direct, and indirect.

Limited Access is the technique of creating teaching opportunities by making it difficult for a child to get desired objects or to go where she wants to be. To use limited access, the adult may place desired objects out of reach, temporarily block the child from moving to desired activities, or place objects in a closed container.

A technique for creating teaching opportunities by requesting that the child do something, say something, or answer a non yes or no question. “ Mand is a term used by Skinner for a request, command, or demand” (Noonan & McCormick, 1993, p. 239).

A system for keeping track of a behavior. It should relate to a behavior that is defined by a child’s objective. The five measures discussed in this curriculum are: duration, per opportunity, frequency count, time sampling, and level of help record.

A form of prompting. The adult demonstrates for the child what to do or say and then gives him a chance to imitate. A full model is a complete demonstration. A partial model demonstrates only some component of what the child is to do.

A series of two or more forms or levels of help arranged to provide progressively decreasing amounts of assistance. The sequence begins with the most help a child needs to say or do something without error. Over time, as he learns the task, the amount of help he is given decreases. However, the decrease is gradual so that the child can complete the task with few or no errors. Over time, the adult ceases the help altogether.

The involvement of muscles and limbs, distinguished as either gross motor (involving large muscle groups) or fine motor (involving small muscle groups). “The achievement of muscle tone and the development and inhibition of primitive reflexes are also considered motor skills” (Bailey & Wolery, p. 43).

Inherent rewards or motivating consequences that come as a result of completing a task. For example, the child asks for a red apple so the adult gives it to him, he pours his own water so he gets to have a drink, or he builds a block road and thus he gets to push his car on it.

A signal that occurs in the environment that the child is to say or do something. Natural cues may be words, conditions (such as cold), states (such as the perception of thirst), events (such as seeing a friend for the first time that day), or activities (such as the occurrence of play).

Inherent rewards or motivating consequences that come as a result of completing a task. For example, the child asks for a red apple so the adult gives it to him, he pours his own water so he gets to have a drink or he builds a block road and thus he gets to push his car on it.

A form of prompting. The adult uses gestures or expectant looks to remind the child that he is expected to do something, but without the added assistance of telling or showing the child what to do.

Experiences that are common to people within a society, including the routines of everyday living.

Statements about what a child will learn to do and in what circumstances. Objectives may be intermediate steps leading to the accomplishment of a goal.

Parallel talk is a way to give children models of appropriate language. You make comments based upon the child's perspective. You may comment on what the child is doing, objects that the child has, or what the child sees. For example: "You have a blue ball" or "You are eating a cookie"

A form of prompting. The adult shows or tells the child how to do something without performing the full action. Partial models can be used when it appears that a full model is more help than the child needs.

A form of prompting. The adult briefly touches or partially supports the child’s body. This is done by holding his arms or wrists and guiding some of his movements, or by simply touching or tapping his wrists, elbows, or shoulders.

A measure of behavior. Per opportunity can be used to collect data about whether a child responds when the specific opportunity to respond arises.

A form of prompting. The adult manually guides the child in doing something. In providing full physical help, the adult directs or controls the child’s movements, providing “the complete effort required to complete the task”(Bailey & Wolery, 1984 p. 60).

Planned consequences are used to motivate a child until a skill is mastered well enough to provide its own natural reinforcers. Stickers, food items, games, or other rewards that have nothing to do with the task, but which children are willing to work for, are examples of planned consequences.

Children ages three to five

A help strategy in which the adult uses “a prompt that will ensure the occurrence of the behavior. This prompt is then paired with the verbal directions (or other cue) for the task. As teaching progresses, the time between the verbal directions and the prompt is progressively lengthened in small increments.” (Snell & Gast, 1981 as cited in Bailey and Wolery, 1984, p. 60).

1). “Anything that assists the child to make a desired response.” (Noonan & McCormick, 1993, p. 165)

2). Specific requests from the parent for the child to talk. Positively encouraging your child to talk or to say more.

Skills that are a part of routine independent living including dressing, feeding oneself, toileting, and hygiene.

Self talk is a way to give children models of appropriate language. During self talk, you comment on things from your perspective. You can comment on what you are doing, objects that you have, or what you see. For example: "I have a blue ball" or "I am eating a cookie"

The ability of the child to transfer learned skills to different environments and settings. For example, generalization implies that once the child has learned to wash her hands at the bathroom sink at school, she will be able to wash her hands at home under similar conditions.

“The ability that comes from knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc. to do something well” (Barnhart, 1959, p. 132).

The ability to interact with others in ways that are effective for the child. Such interactions promote relationships with others. An effective relationship between an infant and adult increases the chance that the adult will provide nurturing interactions. An effective relationship with another child is positive and may be sustained over time.

Behaviors displayed by an individual that appear to serve no function, but that occur often. They are usually repetitive motions such as rocking or hand flapping.

What is required in order to complete a task. Knowledge, motor skills, and time requirements are task characteristics.

An interaction or event that provides an occasion for an adult to teach a child skills or concepts that promote her learning and development. Adults can teach a child new skills or skills that are more complex than those she already uses. These same opportunities can be used to encourage the child to practice skills she rarely uses, uses inappropriately, or displays in the wrong context.

The eight techniques discussed in this curriculum are: manding, limited access, choices, giving a little bit, incomplete activities, unexpected events, commenting, and expanding.

An assessment conducted by an adult of an individual child, usually in a private setting.

A measure of behavior. Time sampling can be used to record behavior at specific points within a period of time.

Observing a behavior for a specific length of time at predetermined times over an interval of time. For example, an adult might watch a child for 15 seconds at the beginning of every 5th minute over a 30 minute period.

Occasions when a child performs a task.

A technique for creating teaching opportunities. The adult says or does something that is unanticipated by the child based on his current understanding and expectations. These events may be silly, funny, or interesting things the adult says.

A form of prompting. The adult says something to provide help for the child.

The increment of time that the adult pauses for the child’s response before providing help. This is also referred to as the delay when using progressive time delay.

Children birth to three years of age.

A phase within the progressive time delay. It involves presenting the natural cue and then immediately helping the child do the task without any delay. It’s helpful to plan a number of zero second delay opportunities to provide many error free learning opportunities for children with disabilities.