Teaching joint attention skills to adolescents and young adults with autism using multiple exemplars and script‐fading procedures
Script-fading plus lots of examples teaches adolescents and young adults with autism to start joint attention bids and the skill spreads to new items.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Rozenblat et al. (2019) worked with four teens and young adults with autism. The team wanted them to start joint attention bids—pointing, showing, or looking back and forth to share interest.
They used written prompts plus short audio scripts. After each learner used the script, the teacher slowly faded the words away. They practiced with many toys and photos so the skill would travel.
What they found
All four learners began to point and comment on their own during teaching sessions. Three of them also did it with brand-new items they had never seen before.
The skill stuck without the scripts, showing the fading worked.
How this fits with other research
Patton et al. (2020) ran almost the same script-fading plan with preschoolers and got the same good results. Together the two studies show the method works from early childhood into adulthood.
Falcomata et al. (2012) did an earlier small study like this with children. Rozenblat’s team widened the age range and added written cues, building on that groundwork.
Wichnick-Gillis et al. (2019) showed script-fading can jump from school to home with siblings. Rozenblat did not test home use, so pairing the two papers gives you a full picture: teach at school, then let siblings run it at home.
Why it matters
If you work with teens or adults who still rarely point or show items, this package is ready to use. Start with short audio scripts and a stack of varied photos or YouTube clips. Fade the voice prompt once they initiate, and keep rotating materials so the skill generalizes. You can finish sessions in under ten minutes and see gains within a week.
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Join Free →Pick three fun photos, record a two-word script like “Look here,” play it as the learner touches the picture, then drop the volume each trial until the voice is gone.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The purpose of the current study was to teach four adolescents and young adults with autism to initiate bids for joint attention using multiple exemplar training, textual prompts, audio scripts, and script‐fading procedures. A multiple‐probe across‐participants design was used. Three training categories and one generalization probe category of stimuli were assigned to each participant. The results demonstrated that all four participants learned to initiate bids for joint attention under training conditions, although using scripted, previously scripted, and generative language. Responding generalized to the nontraining stimuli within the training categories. Three of the four participants also demonstrated generalized responding across stimuli from the probe category. Acquisition of such responses may help increase positive social interactions for adolescents and young adults with autism in the future.
Behavioral Interventions, 2019 · doi:10.1002/bin.1682