S2.03 - Antecedent Cue Regulation
Antecedent cue regulation refers to the act of providing a cue, or prompt, which acts as a signal or stimulus for a desired behavior. The cue is provided BEFORE the behavior. The cue is the antecedent to the behavior. Over time the cue acts as a stimulus for the behavior to occur. Antecedent cue regulation focuses upon setting up the cue or a stimulus for the behavior rather than setting up the outcome or consequence of the behavior (Wehmeyer, Agran, Hughes, 1998). A prompt or signal such as a picture, photograph, noise, or sign can be used to cue specific behaviors in specific situations that lead to positive outcomes.
Antecedent cue regulation may be particularly valuable in Phase 2 of the model: What is my plan? Once a plan has been developed, cues can be set up to help the consumer implement the action plan. Cues can be useful when completing complex task or tasks with multiple steps (Wehmeyer, Agran, Palmer, & Mithaug, 1999). The antecedent cue results in less reliance upon a teacher or facilitator and more self-management. It is a potentially powerful tool in enhancing autonomy and increasing self-determination.
The following material will review some of the steps for developing visual, auditory and tactile antecedent cue regulation.
Visual Cues:
Visual cues include photographs, pictures, illustrations, line drawings, diagrams with text or symbols, and checklists that are arranged in a specific sequence that increased the likelihood of the occurrence of desired behaviors. Pictures cues are used by persons with and without disabilities and can be varied to meet the learning needs and strengths of an individual. Pictures do not require reading skills and are frequently seen as prompts in all types of settings in the community.
Agran, King-Sears, Wehmeyer & Copeland (2003) list the following steps in designing an antecedent cue regulation system with visual cues:
- Step 1. Select a target task or routine. What is it that the consumer wants to do? Is the task to prepare a burger in a fast food restaurant or to clean a room in a hotel?
- Step 2. Break the routine into sub-steps. Identify the steps that make up the completed routine. A routine with fewer steps will need fewer prompts or cues but the number of steps will depend upon the consumer and the complexity of the task.
- Step 3. Select the type of prompt. Is the prompt going to be a photograph, a line drawing, a hand drawing, clip art, or symbols? What does the consumer prefer? Visual cues can be abstract symbols and some people prefer photographic representations of the steps.
- Step 4. Create a prompt of each step in the task analysis. If the sequence of steps is lengthy, a cue may even be provided for self-reinforcement.
- Step 5. Decide how the prompt will be presented. Will a series of photographs be placed in a book or a series of steps contained in a checklist?
- Step 6. Decide how the consumer will access the prompts. Will the consumer need to check off completion of each task on a list or will the consumer flip through a sequence of photographs contained in a book?
Once the picture prompts have been developed, Agran, King-Sears, Wehmeyer, and Copeland (2003) recommend going through the following steps to make sure consumers are able to use the visual prompts to initiate and complete each step in the task.
- Step 1. Determine whether the consumer understands the cues that are represented in each prompt. For example, a photograph of a clock may mean that the activity starts at a specific time or that the consumer needs to record the time the activity started.
- Step 2. Teach the consumer how to use the system to initiate and complete the targeted task. This process starts by reminding the consumer that the cues were developed to make it easier to complete a task that is part of a job and/or career goal that they selected.
- Step 3. Model, or perform the activity depicted in each picture until the activity is complete.
- Step 4. Encourage the consumer to practice the activity using the prompts in the same manner that you modeled.
- Step 5. Praise the consumer for accomplishing the task by using the prompts.
- Step 6. Gradually reduce feedback on completion of tasks until you are able to fade your presence completely.
Page updated 10/30/06
All instructional content © Copyright 2006 by Michael L. Wehmeyer, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
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