Scripts Training with Prompt Fading to Increase Interactions with Peers in Two Students with Autism
Silvia Iacomini, Antonella Diano, Luca Vascelli, Vanessa Artoni
In this study we evaluated the effects of a script training with prompt fading (Krantz & McClannahan, 1993) on the number of interactions with peers. Two students of 16 and 21 years old with autism in comorbidity with intellectual disability, who presented a level of verbal development defined as Reader (Greer & Ross, 2008), took part in this research. The participants were selected because of their difficulty in initiating and maintaining conversations with peers in non-instructional settings. An experimental ABAB design with follow-up was used for the study. The total number of interactions emitted by the participants during all the experimental phases of the study was measured as a dependent variable. The independent variable consisted of teaching written scripts, related to specific conversation topics, which were gradually removed through two levels of fading. The collected data suggest that the implementation of the training was effective, with both students, to increase the emission of spontaneous interactions.
Keywords
Autism, Script, Prompt fading, Interactions, Communication.