Social communication for students with autism: Effects of multiple scripts on conversational exchanges within social dialogue

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience difficulty in both communication and social skills. These difficulties make it challenging for students with ASD to participate in basic social exchanges within many different situations and environments. This study examined how training four adolescent male students with ASD on social scripts would affect their ability to participate in brief social conversations during their work training. The study involved training sessions where the students memorized up to 9 scripted statements and practiced using them in typical back-and-forth social conversations. It also involved generalization sessions where the students were observed to see if they would use the scripts they learned or other statements to participate in conversations. During the study, 3 of the 4 students were able to memorize full scripts. The students, however, were not observed using any scripts independently. This lack of responding on their own may be attributed to a few factors. These include: not training a clear or natural cue to begin the scripts, overwhelming the students with too many words within the scripts, and limited time to run the study and provide additional training to the students. This study can offer valuable insight into factors that must be in place in order to effectively teach social scripts and help individuals with ASD overcome deficits in social and communication skills.