“Hey you!”: An extension of the speaker immersion protocol to recruit the attention of a listener
Add an explicit ‘recruit attention’ step to SIP if you want kids to use new vocal requests to actually get a listener’s attention.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Two preschoolers with autism got the Speaker Immersion Protocol, or SIP. The team first gave lots of echoic models and praise to grow any vocal requests.
Next they added a step: the adult kept her back turned until the child said the target phrase and touched her arm. They tracked how often each child said the phrase to get attention.
What they found
Both kids quickly said more words during SIP. But they only used those words to tap Mom’s shoulder after the attention-recruit piece was added.
Without that step, the new phrases stayed ‘in a vacuum’—loud but not social.
How this fits with other research
Vollmer et al. (1996) showed that happy adult sounds alone can make infants babble more. Verdun’s team shows sounds are not enough; you must teach the child to direct those sounds to a listener.
Waldron et al. (2023) used high-probability sequences to spark tough academic starts. Like them, Verdun used an antecedent package, but aimed it at social communication instead of compliance.
Van Keer et al. (2017) found that sensitive parental responses lifted toddler attention. Verdun flips the angle: train the child to grab that adult attention first, then the response cycle can begin.
Why it matters
If you run SIP and the child talks more but still doesn’t look at you, add an explicit ‘get my attention’ requirement. Turn away, wait for the target phrase plus a tap, then face the child and respond. This tiny step turns new words into true social bids.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AbstractThe speaker immersion protocol (SIP) is an intervention that attempts to increase the frequency and spontaneity of a child's spoken communication. SIP has demonstrated effectiveness with increasing mands and other verbal operants (Ross et al., 2006); however, prior investigations have not examined SIP in the context of needing to recruit the social attention of a communicative partner in the presence of an establishing operation. The current study sought to extend the literature on SIP by adding a recruitment for social attention component to the intervention with two children with Autism spectrum disorder and limited spontaneous language. Prior to intervention, both participants engaged in low levels of target‐requesting behavior even when a communication partner was readily available close by. After receiving an intervention designed to increase vocal requests, both participants demonstrated a significant increase in the number of vocal requests they emitted; however, that did not generalize to making appropriate bids for attention until recruitment for attention was embedded within SIP. Future studies should continue to examine the most effective and efficient ways to improve both the quantity and the quality of autistic children's social communication.
Behavioral Interventions, 2024 · doi:10.1002/bin.2052