One of the diagnostic criteria of autism is repetitive/restrictive behaviors. These repetitive behaviors can sometimes take the form of echolalia. Echolalia is defined as (seamingly) meaningless repetition of another person’s spoken words. Some parents and teachers refer to echolalia as scripting.
If you work in a special education classroom, you may have had a student who engaged in some form of scripting. Whether that’s singing the entire Scooby Doo theme song on repeat, replaying mom and dad’s argument from the night before, or constantly repeating the question of the day well into the afternoon – it can take many forms. Sometimes it’s not intrusive at all. Some kids can turn it off and on and still engage in functional and successful communicative responses throughout the day.
However, for other learners, the scripting can take over. If you are scripting – you can’t be answering a math problem, socializing with a friend, or asking for a cookie. Scripting can limit the student’s ability to learn new skills. It could also be ostracizing. A student will struggle in an inclusion setting if he is repeating scenes from the movie Chuckie nonstop. And you better believe that classroom teacher won’t be pleased to include your student either.
Scripting is a hard skill to work on reducing because often times it is a sensory behavior. These are behaviors that don’t result in a consequence that we have access to. The child isn’t gaining anything tangible, getting attention, or getting out of doing something he doesn’t like. The behavior just feels good internally. It’s like cracking your back or twirling your hair. Scripting provides some type of internal satisfaction. We all engage in sensory behaviors of some form.
Not all scripting is a sensory behavior but for many students it can be. In this post we will talk about scripting that is sensory related. Some scripting may also be an attention behavior or escape behavior. Check out my Behavior Series for more info on these types of responses.
Before we get into any strategies you first want to determine if this is a behavior that is important to decrease in order to teach new skills. Remember – we all engage in repetitive responses. If the scripting behavior is socially significant to decrease, that means that the behavior may be interfering with learning new skills.
The goal is to teach our students to control when to engage in these responses. We all engage in sensory behaviors but we know where and when we should do it. While I am giving a presentation, it would be pretty weird for me to lay on the floor and crack my back but when I’m in bed at nighttime it’s okay.
Scripting isn’t self-injurious or dangerous. But it may limit further skill development and opportunities for friendship or independence. For some students who have scripting behaviors that are extreme or very disruptive, it may be helpful to work on helping the student reduce these behaviors and replace them with other communicative behaviors!
First step: Look for and Eliminate Stressors
Sensory behaviors can be a response to stress or anxiety. These behaviors are used to self-soothe. Again, we all do this. Think about the last time you were really nervous. You maybe bit your bottom lip or cracked your knuckles or rapidly tapped your pen. Take data on scripting to see if it occurs during specific times or events to help identify potential sources for stress. See if those activities could be changed to reduce how and why they are anxiety provoking. Now that you know that those times may be more difficult add in additional teaching procedures on other self-soothing strategies that may be helpful.
Teaching Where and When
Reinforce Intervals Without Scripting
- This can be used more easily with students with more language. Explain the rules. Put a name for the behavior you are trying to decrease so you have a way to talk about it. For reducing scripting, have a name for it. We called it “bad talking” with a student recently to reduce this behavior. We didn’t want to reduce all talking but more specifically the disruptive and violent themed scripting behavior that the student was engaging in.
- Use visual timers or an iPod app to illustrate the length of the timing.
- Fade this to a token economy. Student can earn a point for every interval without a behavior and exchange points for reinforces.
- Use visuals to clarify the rules.
This post is part of Summer Series: Reducing Problem Behavior. Click here to see more in this series!
Teach Other Verbal Behaviors
Some students engage in scripting behaviors, because they don’t know how to engage in other appropriate communicative responses. So spend some real time work on building those other verbal skills. Provide reinforcement for any type of appropriate verbal behavior. Consistently model what they student should be saying and provide appropriate processing time to give the student a chance to respond. When they do respond, praise like crazy! Even if the response isn’t exact, using shaping to provide reinforcement for closer and closer responses towards the correct behavior. It will be gradual but successful!
Check out these post for other ideas on teaching communicative behaviors:
- Teaching Greetings {click here}
- Embedding Communication Opportunities {click here}
- Conversation Skills {click here}
- Answering Questions {click here}
- Using TAH Curriculum for Homeschooling from a Homeschooling Parent - September 10, 2022
- Using The Autism Helper Curriculum for Homeschool - August 8, 2022
- Literacy Subject Overview in The Autism Helper Curriculum - August 2, 2022
Thanks so much for this Sasha! Im just wondering, my 14 year old beauty 🙂 tends to say “I’m hungry” “I’m hungry”. The thing is…… 80% of the time i can guess he is NOT HUNGRY! After reading your post, i thought, maybe this is a scripting behavior. He doesn’t use it all the time, he uses it when he is stressed, anxious, not feeling the best etc. On days where he is very happy and active he will forget about it. When he gets into this “Im hungry” behavior, he starts rubbing his arms/legs as well and the more he says it, the more anxious he will get, and my volunteers start running around and calling me that the poor boy is hungry 🙁 ….. Can you give me some idea’s how we could work on this? Thanks so much as always!
This sounds like he doesn’t have vocabulary to describe anxiety. Lots of kids describe anxiety as tummy aches. Have you tried talking about it and prompting him to maybe say “I’m anxious” if that’s what it truly is
Great question! I would try ignoring it for a few days (only when he says I’m hungry and you know it’s not for hunger ie. he just ate or it’s accompanied by those other behaviors) and see the effect. I wonder if he is doing it for attention also? If he is usually getting a response from people he may have learned to use that behavior to get attention. You can also try teaching a replacement behavior for attention such as “Come play” – when he is saying I’m hungry you could use a visual prompt to ask him “Are you hungry or do you want to play?” That way he an start to use an appropriate response for getting attention. Hope these suggestions help!
Thanks so much for your idea’s! Will try and keep you posted!
Sasha, All I can say is a huge THANK YOU for sharing this information! It is sooooo helpful to gain this perspective for my son!!! Sincerely, Sherra
So happy it was helpful for you! 🙂
Scripting can absolutely be communication! A student I work with repeats lines from YouTube videos that relate to his emotions when he can’t figure out how to express it. And speaking as an autistic adult myself, scripting feels good to me. When people try to take away your scripting, they take away something which feels good to you, can be used communicatively, and isn’t hurting anybody.
Love this! Question though; I have a kindergartener who constantly sings. He has very limited verbal communication. He will echo back occasionally, but his attention span is extremely short, so even getting him to use expressive language is tricky. I’ve found that he sings most during transition times and when waiting, which is ok since that’s an appropriate time in my classroom to sing. We’ve incorporated sensory breaks which have helped for group time and his inclusion time. However, when it’s time to work (1 on 1); he will sing during 80% of the work time (about 15 minutes; we do 3 separate tasks and rotate every 15 minutes). His ABA has told me she believes he is trying to get out of work, or is bored with his work. Even when I’ve presented new and more challenging tasks, he continues to sing. This isn’t something I usually have a lot concern about, because he does complete his work (amount of prompting varies greatly though), but it is something parents are concerned with. Any ideas on how I can teach him to work quietly? I’m guessing interval timing and high praise when he is working and *not* singing?
thank you!
Yes, definitely! Scripting can be a method of communication and an amazing bridge to other verbal skills. And I agree – if it isn’t hurting anybody there is no reason to work on it. This post was specifically targeting scripting that is disruptive and preventing the growth of other academic, functional, and social skills or preventing movement into a less restrictive placement. With many of these kids we can work on where and when scripting is appropriate instead of trying to remove it all together. Just like I wouldn’t lay down on the floor and crack my back in the middle of teaching a class because it feels good, we can teach student when scripting is appropriate and when it is not and give them the opportunity to gain additional verbal skill, academic abilities, and social skills! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Great question. Yea it doesn’t necessarily sound like escape if he is still doing his work and continues to sing with novel and more challenging tasks. I think it’s great to continue to let him sing during transition times and break times. Yea I would agree with your ideas of doing some intervals of singing and not singing time while working one on one. Maybe you can make a visual for each and flip it over when he can sing and flip it back when he cannot. Provide praise and other reinforcers for following the rule. I’d keep it real short intervals as well. And maybe only start this system in one 15 minute blocks and then replicate it once it has been successful. Hope this helps 🙂
Thanks for sharing Sasha! Scripting is one of the hardest behaviors to replace/eliminate but you gave some great tips! Looking forward to using them.
Thanks for reading, Ashley! 🙂
My daughter just turned 4 and had a history of speech delay. However, in the last 3 months we’ve been noticing she has been repeating a lot of what we say and reciting the cartoons she watches. Her teacher told me about scripting, and now I’m noticing it a lot. Being that she’s 4, is there a way at home we can work with her for her to stop and start having engaging conversations?
Great questions. There are a lot of opinions on this. Many think that if the scripting is not causing a distraction then it’s fine if the child continues to script. Others think once it becomes a disruption or causes a decrease in other communicative behaviors then you should look at decreasing. Some think that you should teach when and where your daughter can script. And other people are fine with scripting as being something that is part of who the child is. Basically – something about engaging in that scripting behavior feels good to her. You could think about ways to increase her communication abilities within your family which may on it’s own decrease scripting (ie. if she is engaging in conversations, she can’t be scripting at the same time). Engage her in topics that she is interested, model appropriate conversation skills, provide lots of praise, make it fun and reinforcing (not work or aversive), and lots and lots of practice!
Is scripting always verbal? My 4 year old is non-verbal, and does something like this every time he injures himself. For example, if he runs into something he didn’t see and hits his head, he’ll cry, seek comfort from me, and then stop crying, push me away, run back to where he was hurt, and hit his head there again, start crying again, seek comfort again, etc. It’s like he’s showing me what happened, and initially, I affirm “yes, I know, you hurt your head. It’s owie”, and comfort him,but he’ll just go do that over and over, until I find something sufficiently distracting. Sometimes he won’t hit his head hard when he shows me, but often, he will actually re-injure himself. The first time I started noticing this trend was an incident where I was cooking, and he snuck up behind me and touched the hot element on the stove. I immediately turned it off, took him and went to see to his burn and comfort him, but after just a couple of seconds of hard crying, he stopped, and ran to the stove again, fingers reaching for the element. I caught him in time, but it scared the daylights out of me! So would this be considered a form of scripting for him, since he’s non-verbal, or would this be considered something else?
Hi Liz, It sounds like a repetitive, perseverative behavior – similar to scripting. Scripting is really just a type of repetitive behaviors that are common in children with autism. I would do exactly what you are doing – redirect as soon as possible. I would also try to limit the magnitude of the attention you give him. Obviously you want to make sure he is okay – but I would try to move on quickly and give him more attention for engaging in another behavior.
Hi… my son is fully verbal and communicative 2 years old.. however out of no where he will singer, say a line from tv or a book and sometimes repeatedly . He doesn’t have many symptoms of autism spectrum disorder.. he is social, talks socially, answers questions , and is advanced. Is scripting exclusive to autism?
Nope! We all script actually! Think about when you are going to the grocery store – often times we recite the items we need so we don’t forget. Or if you have a song suck in your head, sometimes you accidentally sing it out loud. With younger kids he may just be remembering something and “think” it out loud. If you are concerned, I would bring it up to your pediatrician at his next appt. Hope this helps.
[…] his age. It was so cute, his mom had wrote “free” for three. Adam has learned how to script the phrase, “umm, I dunno.” It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know, […]
Hi! I hope you’re still responding to this post! It was very helpful to read! I am an occupational therapist at a therapeutic day school for students with autism, presently working with transition aged (18-22 years old) students. A lot of my students script and most of the time it isn’t too big a deal (especially in our environment). However, I have a student who has been doing this for his whole life (one of his scripts is apparently from pre-school), and it is very distracting to him while completing work tasks, while at his work site, during social interaction, and at other times.
I’m wondering how much we would be able to redirect this behavior. I don’t want to eliminate it altogether, for the reasons that you discussed, but it is limiting his functioning. His parents hope for him to become employed after he graduates, and I imagine it might be slightly off putting to potential employers and customers. He uses a moderate tone (not too loud most of the time), and the content is not offensive, just random. He is a verbal student and is able to have short, appropriate social interactions with staff and answer questions appropriately.
How effective do you think this intervention could be? Do you have any resources for research on this topic or evidenced based behavior protocols?
I think this intervention could still be effective. I would make sure to take sufficient baseline data and select a beginning time interval that aligns with the baseline data. Here is the research in this procedure:
Fritz, J. N., Iwata, B. A., Rolider, N. U., Camp, E. M. and Neidert, P. L. (2012), ANALYSIS OF SELF-RECORDING IN SELF-MANAGEMENT INTERVENTIONS FOR STEREOTYPY. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 45: 55–68. doi:10.1901/jaba.2012.45-55
Potter, J. N., Hanley, G. P., Augustine, M., Clay, C. J. and Phelps, M. C. (2013), TREATING STEREOTYPY IN ADOLESCENTS DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM BY REFINING THE TACTIC OF “USING STEREOTYPY AS REINFORCEMENT”. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 46: 407–423. doi:10.1002/jaba.52
Crutchfield, S.A., Mason, R.A., Chambers, A. et al. J Autism Dev Disord (2015) 45: 1146. doi:10.1007/s10803-014-2272-x
Lanovaz, M. J., Rapp, J. T., Maciw, I., Prégent-Pelletier, É., Dorion, C., Ferguson, S., et al. (2014). Effects of multiple interventions for reducing vocal stereotypy: Developing a sequential intervention model. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 8(5), 529–545.
Hope this helps!
Hi there, thank you for this post. My son has a difficult time with scripting. He not only scripts but acts out scenes from movies and books. It is fun to watch him at home and “pretend” along with him but it is a big problem in school. He is doing well academically and is in full inclusion but I’m scared that if we don’t get a handle on his scripting that they will recommend self contained.
So my question is this. Do you think starting to work on this at home (I have always tried to let him do it at home because it comforts him) or would should I try to get his Para at school on board right away? I think she would be receptive to some kind of program to help him but I’m not sure if she would know how to do it properly. He is not in ABA right now because we are trying to just do school. He did 3 years of intense ABA and is doing very well over all. But this scripting is getting pretty out of control. I would put him back in therapy but I’m not sure it would be exacly what he needs. Sorry this question is a little all over the place. I juse want to help my son but I’m not sure if the best way right now:(
Hi Christy, What about trying some strategies at home so you can figure out what works before you share them with school? This would give you the opportunity to compare the effectiveness of different strategies and when you find one that works you can have the para at school replicate it. I would pick one specific time at home to work on it (maybe a specific half hour or hour). Check out his post as well: https://theautismhelper.com/sensory-behaviors-reinforce-intervals-without-behavior/. I think trying this intervention could be effective. Start with small time intervals and use a high powered reinforcer. Hope this helps!
Hello, just came across this post. Hopefully you can still answer. My son is 7, ASD, very medically traumatic early childhood and had tracheostomy till 3. Once the teach came out the scripting started, movies, songs etc. We let it go for a while because we were so happy to hear his voice. Now it’s a major disruption in school. You mentioned sensory and scripting maybe feeling good. What ideas do you have that could meet the sensory need to help decrease the behavior? And also feel good.
Hi Erin, Maybe you can work on teaching him appropriate times to engage in that behavior? Then he will still have the chance to do it and have that reinforcing behavior but only at appropriate times. You could use a visual for when he can/cannot script. Also check out this post: https://theautismhelper.com/sensory-behaviors-reinforce-intervals-without-behavior/. Hope this helps!
As another person who is actually Autistic, I completely agree with Rachel. Scripting is very often a form of communication. A person may be expressing excitement, frustration, or other emotions. A person may be trying to self-soothe in a stressful environment or trying to calm themselves after a stressful event. I think there needs to be a huge disclaimer that this is only for extreme cases, not for everyone. Taking away a person’s right to communicate because you don’t understand them isn’t ok.
Hi Kayla, I think I responded to you on FB too. I absolutely don’t mean to convey that all verbal scripting should be reduced. This post was intended to target the extreme or highly disruptive (for the student) scripting while teaching additional communicative response. I will go through the post and edit to make sure that is clarified. Thank you for responding and sharing your perspective!
Great article! My son is turning 10 in a month and has always scripted. He uses it appropriately in school settings (majority of the time) I find he does it mostly at home, a lot. Ironically he has reverted back to scripting shows that he watched as a toddler (thank you YouTube, ugh) He doesn’t watch TV at all. I wanted to try to introduce him to new characters and or show to introduce new dialog, and new story lines. It’s not that I’m wanting him to be a TV person, but I want him progress in comprehending the stories behind the characters. Any suggestions in accomplishing this?
Great question! Maybe try a first then with youtube of first we watch a video mom picks then we watch a video you pick? Sometimes just giving exposure to different videos/movies is helpful!
Hi there, thanks so much for this post!
I have a 4.5 years old son with an ASD diagnose. He used to script a lot last year, but as his language and social skills increased this behavior reduced. Now he is just scripting when playing with his toys and acting them out (cars and trains basically)
He started in a new preschool and he is placed in a group where he is the oldest kid. I don’t feel he specially connects with his peers. Now the school reports that he scripts during the day and that prevents him to be aware of what’s happening around him and socially participate with the group. Could this come from a lack of motivation for this particular group? He doesn’t show this behavior at home and he is usually engaged with us, but we keep the environment very active and fun. He also has 2 older neurotypical siblings that are always stimulating him.
I requested to observe the classroom to get some clue on what the dynamics are. What would be your advice on this situation? What should I look for? Thanks so much.
What is the ipad data collection tool you show a pic of?
It’s keynote on the iPad! 🙂
I’m struggling to find a way to take data on vocal scripting and echolalia throughout the school day. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi, I have 2 colleagues (adult males) who have hinted that they are each on the autistic spectrum. When they are not working with each other they aren’t so bad but when together one might sing someone’s name to a popular tune and the other then repeats it. Then for the rest of the shift they will repeat the name singing over and over, if one starts the other joins in. They have been told by several staff that this is annoying but they can’t seem to stop their outbursts. I don’t know if this is vocal scripting, or if they they can control the urges to repeat the sung phrases or names. Is there anything that we can do to reduce this?
Hello Sasha,
Do you provide in person consulting or over the phone? My 10 year old has scripting issues. He doesn’t script during class hours in school but severely scripts during school recess and once he is back home. Its so hard for us to get him to do anything else. His scripting is in the form of pretend playing scenes from the show Beyblade and making loud wooshing sounds … i read your success story about a child going from 90% to 0 % scripting. Please advise….
Thx
SH
I know this is a few years old, but I think it’s hard for people to fully understand how disruptive scripting can be. The adults with autism that commented above clearly have developed methods for regulating and utilizing scripting to communicate. I’m a pediatric occupational therapist, and I have many many children whose scripting is honestly harmful to themselves or to others. A few of them regress into their scripting so much that it winds them up and comes out as self-harm or aggression towards others. I’ve been able to determine when scripting is being used more functionally, and I always respond to it if that’s the case. However, when a child spends 95% of a therapy session putting their head down and even closing their eyes to shut everything out except their script, it is clearly disruptive to their functioning and ability to learn and engage with others, especially if the child is older and this behavior has been a significant component of their life for so long. It can be such a frustrating behavior to deal with because you don’t want to take away something that feels good to them, but it is such an interference that they aren’t growing or developing any new skills.
Hi! This is such a great post, and I love it! I have a question. I have a student who does scripting. She repeats lines from tv shows she watched most of the time during our drills and even in play time. I used the time interval on her, tried 10 seconds for every time she does not script, but every time I praise her and give her a reinforcer, she does it again. I’m thinking of using a token economy for her, but I’m afraid that she may not be able to understand it. She’s 4 years old but she still has limited vocabulary. What can I do for her to stop scripting at inappropriate times?
Seems like you are on the right track! As long as she isn’t scripting during your interval that is good. Continue to take data and then see if you can lengthen the time interval.
I have a preschool student who is non verbal and doesn’t seem to understand verbal language. He also doesn’t imitate nor make eye contact. His scripting is extremely loud humming at random times throughout the day which is very distracting to everyone. I mentioned it to Mom and she said his speech therapist at a different location said we should be encouraging it because it is him trying to talk. I disagree and feel it’s more of a stim. How should I proceed do you think?
It’s hard to answer that without knowing/observing the student. The first things I always work on with a student are imitation and building rapport. It would be interesting to see once you got some imitation if then you could target that.
How would you create a goal to reduce scripting in the classroom? I have a student that scripts up to 40 times a day and I am looking to reduce that number through data collection
Depends on the student and the intervention. If you are using Response Interruption and Redirection, I would set some benchmarks for success within the goal (ie. less than 30 times a day, less than 20 times a day, etc.) and add in a description of how the procedure works!
Hi Vanesse, thanks for sharing. Pls how were you able to help your child to be verbal. My 5 year old has similar problem. Thanks
Thanks Sasha for the education provided. God bless you. Please I have a 5 year old with no current diagnosis. He’s very intelligent, reads, sings and solve math problems although he’s only in preschool. I still think he’s non verbal because he doesn’t seem to understand what he reads and can’t make sentences to communicate. Pls can u suggest anything I can do at home to help him so his intelligence doesn’t go waste and we can help him build on his strengths.
He currently receives speech therapy for
School but it’s not helping. How do I push him to talk and increase his comprehension of language at home.
Thanks Sasha for helping all desperate mothers.
I would reach out to his school and school based SLP for ideas to do at home! Also check out my Emergency Home School Kit: https://theautismhelper.com/emergency-home-school-kit/
Hi Sasha,
Thank you for the wonderful post!
I have a student who scripts about 90% of the school day. It greatly hinders his ability and his classmates to get any work done. We call it “TV talk”, because it is mostly from Sponge Bob or other cartoons, etc. HELP!!!
When you all him all done TV talk……he becomes aggressive and engages in it more, if that is possible.
We have a school for children with unique learning styles, so you can imagine in his class there are several behaviors that start because of this TV Talk! Any advice will help!
I would look for a high powered reinforcer that can compete with that and also give him appropriate times to engage in that type of talk as well!
Hi Sasha!
This was such a great article to read! Thank you for this post!
Can scripting be caused by anxiety and be used as a coping mechanism? If the scripting is caused by anxiety, should I go ahead and try the interventions you listed in the post?
I have tried using visuals as well as social stories. Do you have a social story relating to scripting? I have a hard time getting into the child’s “loop” and getting the child to stop scripting. Any advice would be wonderful!
Thank you!
Hi Beth, If you are thinking it’s related to anxiety I would loop in parents or a school psychologist to look at teaching other coping strategies.
Thank You So Much!!! My daughter is 11 and is a 2e student with autism which has confused the school so much. She uses scripting almost 90% of the day even while watching TV, on her own, and especially during class (which was not a major disruption in her learning until recently). Up until last yr she might be in a separate part of the classroom scripting but was smart enough to quickly review and keep up academically. She often brought home a “Needs to Finish” folder of incomplete assignments. Last yr they tried putting her in a small group classroom for 90% of instruction (they thought she was smart enough to keep up but didn’t want her disrupting the class) but she ended up further behind b/c they did not monitor the scripting while she was independent working. Now she is going to middle school but has to be in mainstream classes because all her classes are AP. Do you think this type of scripting intervention could still be effective at this age for a 6th grader or is it too late? I know I will have to fight for her not to fail classes and demand extensions if they begin at 10-20 second intervals (where she would have to start.) I wish I had known what this was called before now. This is one time when it’s unfortunate that her GT label made them overlook her Autism diagnosis so they refused to address it and label it Emotional Disturbed behavior to avoid offering autism services.
Hi Melissa! Thanks for reading! I would reach out to BCBA in your are or your daughter’s teacher to see if something like this could work! She is lucky to have such a dedicated parent!
Sasha,
My son giggles and scripts a lot instead of paying attention a lot of the time. I have tried to tell him when it is okay and when it is not but it doesn’t seem to be working. What can I do on a day to day basis to help him with his scripting? I don’t want him to sound like a robot but i cant have him yelling or scripting during school. Thanks
I can’t give advice specific to a child but Response Interruption and Redirection is another evidence based treatment for scripting. https://theautismhelper.com/sensory-behaviors-response-interruption-redirection/
Thank you so much. I am a teacher and we had a 4 year old engaging in scripting almost all day. It was things he sees on youtube, songs he has heard, shows he has seen. I have to say he is a sponge and sings the “Night Before Christmas” with all the nuances in the music. I call him my little Einstein. I am getting him ready for Kinder inclusion as this student is so smart and after reading your article I starting using the when/where with a visual. This was because the student started scripting something not appropriate from youtube and with the families help and this article we were able to redirect/replace within 48 hours. Thank you. My question: Is it appropriate to write goals in this area for the classroom. He is picking up on these accommodations quickly for when/where. Large group we have a quiet on one side/talk on the other side. We also are giving him opportunities in unstructured times to do this. I just want to set him up for success in the GE class.
I think it could be an appropriate goal if it’s a significant area of need for the learner.
It’s a year or so since the last post, but I feel compelled to write a response. I am disturbed by the responses that seek to ‘extinguish’ “scripting” or echolalia as it’s properly called. What about considering scripting a form of communication and asking WHY and trying to figure out WHY the child is scripting? WHAT is he saying, or trying to say? If it occurs in certain situations might it be that the situation is stressful and causing anxiety to the point that the student reverts to scripting? How can the adults try to work WITH the student to reduce the stress rather than making the child complete an adult-directed activity AND eliminating the behavior that comforts the child during the obviously unpleasant task? (that is considered ‘punishment’ in behavioral terms.
Remember- autistic individuals are not animals. We are not ‘training’ them. Our job is to ‘teach’. If scripting is self-calming, to me, it’s cruel to take it away or ask the child to eliminate it EVEN IF it occurs significantly as to disrupt the learning. IF the anxiety is that severe, wouldn’t it make sense to eliminate the cause of the scripting?
Susan
Susan,
I agree with you and have been quite shocked at the wording used in the article. I used to follow Asperger’s Experts and would let my daughter stim as much as I could. The Temple Grandon movie changed my approach a long time ago. When we lived in another state, our developmental doc would tell me what the schools would try to do. When they wanted her medicated, the developmental doc refused and told them that they needed to be retrained after watching a video interaction.
The school here did not comply either until one summer I watched all of her shows and committed them to memory. I would finish her scripts with her, and her whole demeanor and behavior changed for the better. Her self-harm stopped almost completely until school. They did put some things in her IEP and would let her stim because that is what we thought it was at the time. Eventually, we ended up homeschooling which was better, but she still hated speech.
After hitting a wall in progress of any kind, the company put us with a new speech pathologist (the prior one was awesome and provided extensive notes for our current one) who had a different approach and was prepared for day one by knowing and singing some of her favorite songs from SpongeBob.
Eventually, she was diagnosed as a Gestalt Language Processor. She is now excited about speech, participates fully and enthusiastically, and has improved substantially in the last couple of months. It is astonishing.
GLPs are not able to process language in the same way, but it is not a disorder at all. What we learned about gestalt is that her “stimming” behaviors and scripting and echolalia were her trying to learn language. ABA therapies and the typical speech approach were preventing her from learning language. This is why her anxiety about reading out loud and answering questions on the spot was so upsetting to her because they would redirect and stop her when she was trying to participate.
It was in the literature for SLP training but not mainstream because most people are analytic language processors. I am also a gestalt and was hyperlexic as a child. I went through my process faster, whereas my daughter got hung up because they misunderstood what was happening. I remember when there were no therapies for children with autism. When my daughter was diagnosed, they were scarce. We learn more all the time, and I am sharing this to hopefully inform you all so that you can help people moving forward while respecting them as people because kids are being hurt here, even though it is accidental.
We lost years, about ten years.
Hi Susan, Thank you for sharing your feedback. I would never advocate looking to “extinguish” a sensory seeking response that isn’t dangerous. In this post, I covered ideas on teaching discrimination skills on using that response, teaching additional communication skills, and adding in support tools. I added additional information on identifying sources of stress. I had another newer post on that but this article was definitely lacking that point.
Hi Susan,
I know that this is a few months old but wanted to reply. Not sure what your experience is with children that script, but it sounds like this isn’t a one size fits all situation. For my child, he will script while walking in a parking lot. While he scripts he loses focus and this becomes a safety issue. In class when he scripts he doesn’t focus on the school work and also disrupts the rest of the class. Also, other kids don’t want to play with him because he can’t stay focused on the task at hand. He has actually told me this and stated things like “I try to get the videos to stop, but they won’t and I can’t do my schoolwork.”
I’m not as concerned about the scripting itself, but more about how it affects him and his safety. Not looking to “eliminate” but more looking to control it more so my child can interact with his friends, be able to do more tasks independently without fear of him getting hurt, and be able to learn in a classroom without being removed.
Jason
Hi,
It appears verbal behavior uses an analytic language processor approach. Are you aware of top down language processing – gestalt language processing in which a child uses chunks of language a single units or scripts? The approach is completely opposite of a verbal behavior or analytic approach. Do BCBAs have any training in gestalt language processing. With this approach scripting is not something to be extinguished.
This is a really important insight. Echolalia and scripting are valid forms of communication and language development. Instead of extinguishing scripting and echolalia, we need to learn what the person is attempting to communicate and support them. Extinguishing scripting puts compliance over communication.
This post has been very interesting to read. I have a wonderful 13 year old student with multiple disabilities in my class. He is non-speaking and uses an ipad with a communication application for communication. This ipad is a dedicated communication device. He has for the past few years, perseverated on specific buttons on his ipad. He activates the button repeatedly, I believe for purpose to hear the word/phrase repeated (?sensory scripting). We use a token reward system to reduce his off topic comments. He gets to choose from one of 4 prefered things as a reward after he earns ten tokens. This system does work but it takes a lot of work. He is able to communicate needs and wants but he uses the device mostly for scripting. He has an amazing ability to remember where his buttons are within the page sets on his device. Wondering if you have suggestions for a student who has to use a device as his voice but scripts on it?
Hey Tracy! When I have this situation, I address it the same way as if the student is a verbal communicator. Their voice is their voice regardless of whether it is spoken or via a device. I try strategies like working to talk about their preferred item, providing other solutions for students who are bothered by the scripting, or natural prompts like, “We aren’t talking about that right now.” Hope that helps!
I do beat buddies at my school and my buddy scripts a lot for various reasons, stress, anger, stimming, etc. Most commonly he gets angry and can sometimes be physical. my question is how do i as a student helping out deal with the scripting and help it. he usually repeats stuff his parents have said that reflect the emotion he’s feeling.
Hey Mary! Great question. I think it’s best to validate feelings. I.e. “hey seems like you are feeling stressed or anxious?” and then providing some choices “do you want to take a break or go for a walk?”
Hello I`m Luciana from Argentina. My 11 year old boy is literally driving us crazy, he talks (scripts) non stop from the early morning until he goes to bed, it is absolutely disrupting, he does it at school, while doing homework, while studying, I feel like I need to be able to help him to learn better. I know he is smart enough to do what he does but he just can regulate himself. None of their therapists has ever been able to help with this matter.
Please excuse my english I hope I made myself clear enough.
Thank you
Luciana, I would enlist the help of his teachers to determine the function of his scripting. If he is doing it for sensory purposes, the response from adults should be different than if he is using the scripts to communicate.
Hello,
All of this is very helpful, thank you. What I am seeing in my learner is repeating phrases until he ‘feels better’. For example, when he is transitioning or is presented with a first/then direction, he will repeat, “first reading then iPad” multiple times. Staff have begun to acknowledge his statement up to 3 times and then giving him, “only once more”. This has helped but he gets agitated as he knows how many times he has to repeat the phrase and will then say, “can I say it one more time?”, also, multiple times. If he believes it is noon and it only 8:00 am, he will repeatedly ask staff if it is noon? If they disagree, show him a clock or his visual schedule, he can become highly upset, yell the phrase and has been aggressive. It is ‘OCD’-like, is this typical to ASD?
Depends on the learner! Sometimes we see some OCD-like behaviors. Do you have a school psychologist you can consult with?
I have students that do a lot of scripting. However, they are actually acting entire scenes and actions out. It is like they do not understand that they don’t live inside the video itself. Is this still considered stages of gestalt language? My concern is their ability to tell the difference between fantasy and reality. I have tried giving them time to act out the scenes, etc as rewards. They do not seem to be able to “turn off” the movies in their head.
I think it depends on the kid! Good question though.
Hi Sasha,
Thanks for the post. Very helpful. I have an autistic student who was writing well. Now, he shades his letters. He will not stop with verbal prompts. I feel like he is doing it for sensory. I’m not sure how to help him go back to writing the way he used to.
Can you give him a coloring/shading activity before the writing task?