What type of response occurs when a child claps after being prompted by clapping?

The response in which a child claps after being prompted by another instance of clapping is best classified as motor imitation. In this scenario, the child is observing the action of clapping and then replicates that same motor action. Motor imitation refers to the ability to reproduce a physical behavior after seeing it demonstrated by someone else. This is a key aspect of learning through observation, particularly in young children as they develop various skills and behaviors.

While echoic responses involve repeating verbal behaviors after hearing them, and intraverbal responses are about responding to verbal stimuli that do not involve immediate mimicry, neither of those applies here since the prompt is non-verbal. A verbal prompt, on the other hand, would involve verbal instructions or cues rather than actions. In this case, since the response is purely about mimicking an observable physical action, motor imitation is the most appropriate classification.