Like, prefer, hate, love, want, need and so on are stative verbs, which mean they describe states, not actions. For example, 'She is swimming' describes an activity happening at a specific time, so it is common to use the verb 'swim' in a continuous tense. But 'I like chocolate' is not an activity, so we don't usually use 'like' in the continuous tenses. However, most stative verbs CAN sometimes be used in continuous tenses. For example, to describe a general fact, you would say: 'Grapevines need a lot of sunshine.' But for a temporary situation, you might say: 'Rosa is needing a lot of help with her schoolwork this term.'