The system of least prompts, an instructional strategy used with moderately and severely handicapped students, is described. A literature review analyzes the populations for which the procedure has been used, the type of skills that have been taught, the results obtained, and describes specific system parameters used by each author. (Author/VW)

A theory of practice in high-proficiency skills such as speech production is proposed, involving activation of a hierarchy of nodes in serial order within an output system of behavior. Increased flexibility with practice, response mechanism transfer in skills, motor equivalence, automaticity, and speed-accuracy trade-off are discussed. (Author/CM)