Script Fading

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Script Fading

• Andrea Gonzalez
• Caldwell College
• Patricia J. Krantz, Lynn E. McClannahan.
  (1993). Teaching Children with Autism to
  Initiate to Peers Effects of a Script Fading
  Procedure. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
  26, 121-132.

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Background

• Children with autism have a severe deficit in
  reciprocal social interaction.
• Previous research have taught non-disabled peers
  to initiate to children with autism.
• Maintenance and cross-setting generalization of
  social interaction skills have been difficult to
  achieve.
• Adult prompting and reinforcement (transfer of
  stimulus control from the teacher to natural
  elements in the environment)

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Purpose

• Assess effects of a written script and script
  fading procedure on social initiations of
  children with autism.
• Assess unscripted peer initiations, responses,
  setting generalization and maintenance.

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Participants

• 4 participants
• Kate- 12yrs old and enrolled in the PCDI program
  for 8 years.
• Mike- 12 yrs old and enrolled in the PCDI program
  for 5 years.
• Walt- 12 yrs old and enrolled in the PCDI program
  for 5 years.
• Ross- 9 yrs old and enrolled in the PCDI program
  for 5 years.
• After 5-8 years of intensive therapy, the
  participants were seldom aggressive or self
  injurious, and acquired some early academic skills

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Prior to Study

• Follow photographic activity schedules.
• Follow written activity schedules.
• Developed some functional expressive language.
• For 9 months, the 4 participants were classmates
  and a class schedule was designed specifically
  for them.
• During the 9 months, teachers modeled and
  verbally prompted social initiations.
• Each child was tested on target words.

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Setting

• School and Research Center for children with
  autism.
• Pre-session activities occurred in an outdoor
  play area.
• Sessions were conducted in a typical classroom.
• Generalization sessions were conducted in a large
  conference room.

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Dependent Variables

• Initiation to Peers
• Scripted Initiations
• Unscripted Initiations
• Responses- defined as a contextual utterance that
  was not prompted by the teacher and that occurred
  within 5 s of a statement or question directed to
  the target child.

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Independent Variables

• Three art activities
• Drawing
• Coloring
• Painting
• Script
• 10 statements and questions
• 3 different versions of script created

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Baseline

• Three art activities rotated across sessions
• Activity on table along with a sheet of paper
  that presented the instructions, Do your art
  and Talk a lot.
• Manually prompted.
• Verbal prompt of first word provided if needed.
• Teacher only interacted with participants if they
  directed questions to her.

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Procedure

• Art activities rotated across sessions
• Instructions, Do your art and Talk a lot
  presented.
• Scripts consisting of 10 statements and
  questions.
• Activities recently completed
• Activities that were being planned
• Objects in the school environment

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Procedure

• Manual Guidance
• Pick up pencil and move the pencil below text as
  the participant read.
• To turn the participants head towards the
  listener.
• If statement was not verbalize within 5 s manual
  guidance was repeated.
• When manual guidance was completely faded, fading
  of the script began.
• From end to beginning, in five phases.

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Fading of a Script

• 5 phases
• Mike, what do you like to do best on Fun
  Fridays?
• How can this script be faded in 5 phases?
• If the script would have been faded in more or
  less phases, would it have made a difference?

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Measurement Procedure

• Began after last child was seated
• 10 consecutive minutes
• Continuous event recording system (1 min
  intervals)
• Recorded scripted and unscripted initiations and
  responses to peers.
• An audible signal from a computer marked the end
  of an interval.
• Two observers
• Collected data on two participants.
• Target children were rotated across sessions.

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Follow-up

• Two month follow-up (1 month vacation and 1 month
  of a new school year)
• All participants used fading step 5 ()
• No prompts delivered

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Generalization

• Conference room
• Different teacher
• Different time of day
• Different materials
• First 3 sessions
• Sheet of paper with instructions, Do your
  puzzle and Talk a lot.
• Manual guidance to read the instructions and to
  move the pencil below each word.

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Generalization

• Sessions 4 through 6
• Written instructions provided along with the
  faded script as it was being presented to them
  during the script condition
• No prompts delivered
• During session 9
• 3 typically developing children visited the
  school
• Spent time together with the participants in the
  same classroom
• Art materials and the instructions, Do your art
  and Talk a lot was presented with no further
  prompts.

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Interobserver Agreement

• Agreements/ Agreements Disagreements multiplied
  by 100.
• Obtained during
• 80 of classroom sessions
• Five of six generalization sessions
• Session conducted with non-disabled children
• Agreement ranged from 75-100
• Agreement on participants use of the script was
  100

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Results
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Results
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Future Research

• Determine whether script fading procedures can
  increase the length and complexity of childrens
  verbal utterances.
• Can multiple scripts promote conversational
  variety?
• Can initiations taught with a script fading
  procedure generalize to more remote settings
  (e.g., home, community)
• Can written prompts be faded to the single
  written instruction, Talk a lot?

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• Research Strengths

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• Questions or Comments