Abstract
The script fading procedure aims to develop better communication skills of children and youngsters with Autism Spectrum Disorder in relationship with other people. The procedure seeks to incorporate cues in several contexts. Scripts may be organized in day-to-day situations of life, such as playful interactions among children and the scripts may consist in pictorial, textual or auditory stimuli. If a learner, for example, lacks conversation skills, but has good repertoire regarding textual behavior, scripts consisting of written phrases may be presented and the learner has to read them. The listener may interact with the speaker like he is emitting responses free from the control of scripts. With repetitive exposure to the contingency and the establishment of a more fluent repertoire of textual behavior, the script is gradually faded out by word removal one by one. This process continues until the learner’s responses become free from the control of the whole scripts. Previous research has demonstrated the establishment of independent performance, maintenance and generalization to different settings and listeners. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of this procedure in establishing conversation skills in a child aged 9 with ASD. Textual scripts were applied to three sets of conversation. After a baseline condition, training started and the experimental control by the independent variable was established through a multiple baseline design across the three different conversation topics. Independent performance was successfully established through reinforcement of correct performance and error correction. Although the interventions were conducted in a university-based laboratory, the established repertoires generalized to the child’s school classroom and another listeners (another adult and a child). Implications to school inclusion regarding the establishment of conversation among children in school setting were discussed.
Highlights
IntroductionThe Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is considered a neurodevelopmental disorder (APA, 2013)
After script fading training started, 20 blocks of trials were necessary to set responding totally free from control of scripts for the first set; nine blocks were necessary for the same purpose for the second set of scripts; and 13 blocks of trials were needed for third set
Data from the current research replicated those from previous scientific literature regarding the effects of script fading training on the establishment of communication skills in children with ASD (Krantz & McClannahan, 1993; Krantz, & McClannahan, 1998; Sarokoff, Taylor, & Poulson, 2001; Reagon & Higbee, 2009; Betz, Higbee, Kelley, Sellers, & Pollard, 2011; Howlett, Sidener, Progar, & Sidener, 2011; Pollard, Betz, & Higbee, 2012; Garcia-Albea, Reeve, Reeve, & Brothers, 2014; Ledbetter-Cho et al, 2015; Sellers, Kelley, Higbee, & Wolfe, 2016)
Summary
The Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is considered a neurodevelopmental disorder (APA, 2013). For example, developed interventions with the purpose of ameliorating learning impairments and behavior problems in individuals with autism (Richman, 2001). Even though some children have already shown skills related to language and communication to some extent, the scientific literature emphasizes that, for many learners, these skills are hardly ever demonstrated with the goal of initiating and maintaining a verbal interaction among other people and that the learners frequently lack spontaneity. This chapter had two goals: 1) to describe methodological aspects of some research on script fading and effects on the establishment of communication skills in children diagnosed with ASD; 2) to present a research report on the effects of script fading in a Brazilian child with ASD aged 9 years old
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