Using generic picture cues to promote verbal initiations during play
Sliding a small generic picture next to a play script nudges children with autism to talk more and the talk can stick even when the picture disappears.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team worked with three preschool and early-elementary children with autism.
Each child got social script training. Half the sessions added small, generic picture cards. The other half used no cards.
A multiple-baseline design showed when each child started talking more during play.
What they found
Kids said more play-related words when the pictures were present.
Some of the new talk also showed up later with brand-new toys, even without the cards.
How this fits with other research
Danitz et al. (2014) meta-analysis says picture AAC gives small-to-moderate speech gains. Mattson’s result lands on the high side of that range, but the kids were higher functioning than many in the meta.
Preston et al. (2009) review warns that PECS mainly teaches requesting, not chat. Mattson’s generic cues plus scripts directly target play comments, filling that gap.
Mazur (1983) first showed that low-functioning children can learn to hand over picture cards. Mattson moves the same idea forward: now the card is just a quick visual prompt that later comes out of the child’s mouth as speech.
Why it matters
You can add cheap, laminated pictures to any play script. The cue reminds the child what to say, then you fade it. Expect more spontaneous comments and some carry-over to new toys. Try it during centers, recess, or peer play next week.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder often demonstrate difficulty communicating with others, and this may affect the extent to which they can engage in contextually appropriate language during play. This study examined the effects of a social script-training intervention using generic picture cues on the number of contextually appropriate play statements for children with autism spectrum disorder. We also examined the extent to which responding generalized to novel toy sets and analyzed play statement types. A nonconcurrent multiple-baseline-across-participants design with embedded reversal components was used to evaluate the effects of the generic picture-cue intervention on contextually appropriate play statements. Three participants demonstrated a higher number of contextually appropriate play statements in the training condition as compared with the baseline and no-cue conditions. Further, two out of three participants continued to emit a similar number of contextually appropriate play statements when we introduced novel toy sets.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2023 · doi:10.1002/jaba.1014