Krantz, P. J., & McClannahan, L. E. (1998).
Social interaction skills for children with autism: A script-fading procedure for beginning readers.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
31, 191-202.
Engaging in spontaneous social exchanges is a central skill
deficit of children with autism, and one that is often difficult
to remediate. The 3 boys (ages 4, 4, and 5 years) who
participated in this study had acquired small verbal repertoires,
but typically spoke only when answering questions or requesting
preferred edible items or toys, and did not converse with a
familiar teacher during baseline. During teaching, textual cues
("Look" and "Watch me") were embedded in the
youngsters' photographic activity schedules; after learning to
use the scripts, the children's verbal elaborations and
unscripted interactions increased and were maintained when a new
recipient of interaction was introduced. After scripts were
faded, unscripted interactions not only continued but also
generalized to different activities that had not been the topic
of teaching. The script-fading procedure enabled children with
autism to converse with adults, to benefit from adults' language
models, and to engage in language practice that contributes to
fluency.
DESCRIPTORS: autistic children, antecedent control, pictorial
cues, social interaction, script fading