Teaching Children With Autism Conversational Speech Using a Cue Card/Written Script Program

[This study assessed the efficacy of a written script/cue card program to teach verbal, literate, children with autism conversational speech skills. Scripted conversations were created about abstract, age appropriate topics. Children's lines were printed on "cue cards". Three boys, ages 8,9, and 10, were taught to respond to a conversational question and then ask a contextually appropriate question. Initially, all three boys demonstrated low frequencies of conversational speech. Following intervention, all three quickly met the training criteria, and maintained correct responding without cue cards. Responding generalized to untrained topics, and across conversants and settings.]