Activity Schedules and Script-Fading Procedures: Key Curricula for Teaching People with Autism Independence and Social Interaction Skills

Abstract

Behavior analysis incorporates many effective strategies for teaching diverse repertoires of behavior. Individuals with a diagnosis of autism are taught to engage in recreational, self-care, and home living tasks and to build academic and communication repertoires. If instructors teach these complex responses, but students never learn to initiate those responses, they are of little relevance. A behavior analyst’s goal must be to reduce the need for instructor-delivered prompts to evoke responses and to ensure that responding occurs under relevant stimulus control. Script-fading procedures and activity schedules are designed to do just that. These procedures have been used for decades at the Princeton Child Development Institute (PCDI). Students who first enter the program are taught to complete activity schedules within their first few days of intervention; scripts are often introduced simultaneously. These procedures, when used in isolation or in conjunction, result in students learning to initiate a wide array of activities, including social interactions.KeywordsActivity schedulesScript-fadingAutismCurriculaEvidence-based practice