Increasing Verbal Behavior in a Young Adolescent Girl with Catatonia and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

A young learners girl with autism and catatonia had lost almost all speech. The team taught her three useful phrases: “I need help,” “I want that,” and “All done.”

They used hand-over-hand guidance first. They quickly faded to a light touch, then to just a spoken model. Each trial ended with praise and a small edible.

over the study period the girl said all three phrases without any help. She used them with new adults and kept the skill four weeks later.

Her catatonic stiffness also dropped during teaching sessions, letting her move and speak more freely.

Delgado-Lobete et al. (2019) got the same fast success using written cards instead of hands. Both studies show prompt-fading works whether the cue is textual or physical.

Yamamoto et al. (2024) tried only textual prompts with autistic adults and saw weak, jumpy gains. Adding the manual guidance plus verbal model, as M et al. did, may be key when speech is severely shut down.

Aravamudhan et al. (2021) also helped a non-speaking autistic teen, but they used speed drills for clear sounds. M et al. prove you can skip drills and still recover whole phrases if you pair prompt fading with a model.

Catatonia can steal words even from kids who once spoke. This paper gives you a low-tech rescue plan: hand prompt, fade fast, add a spoken model, reinforce. Try it when you see stiff posture, long pauses, or lost words in older autistic clients. One week of daily 10-minute trials could bring back key requests and cut stress for both of you.