A study investigated the effects of the prompting procedure and the fading procedure upon the acquisition of word recognition skills in beginning readers. The prompting procedure is designed to overdetermine correct reading responses during word acquisition, while the gradual fading of the prompts results in transfer of control from the prompt to the printed word. Thirty kindergarten children received four training trials covering 15 words commonly found in preprimers. The groups were a (1) prompting and fading group, which was shown pictorial prompts that were then gradually faded; (2) a prompting only group, which recieved the same pictorial prompts but no fading; and (3) a no prompting group, which was exposed to the printed words but no pictorial prompts. Results showed that the prompting and fading group and the prompting only group maintained a low error rate throughout training, while the no prompting group demonstrated a high initial error rate that gradually declined. The prompting and fading group and the no prompting group performed similarly and significantly higher than the prompting only group on a word recognition test administered after training. The findings suggest that increasing the level of prompting reduces the rate of acquisition of word recognition skills. (Author/FL)