Replacing prelinguistic behaviors with functional communication.

Four preschoolers with autism kept grabbing, screaming, or leading adults by the hand.

Teachers got one hour of training plus daily feedback. They taught each child a simple sign or picture exchange to ask for the same thing the screaming used to get.

The researchers watched in class and counted how often each child used the new communication and how often the old behaviors happened.

Every child learned the new word, sign, or picture within a few days.

The grabbing and screaming dropped to almost zero and stayed low for the rest of the school year.

Perez et al. (2015) later showed parents can do the same job at home through weekly Zoom calls and cut problem behavior by a large share.

Galuska et al. (2006) used picture improvisation instead of teacher-made signs and got the same result: kids swapped vague reaching for clear requests.

Chang et al. (2016) ran a larger classroom study with JASPER play routines and also saw teachers hit high fidelity, proving the model works across different communication programs.

You do not need extra staff. Train the teacher already in the room, give quick daily feedback, and the child’s day gets quieter and clearer. Use this when you see pulling, screaming, or hand-leading in preschool. Pick one simple request, teach it fast, and watch the problem behavior fade.