Many kids with autism who have some language but are not conversational say lines from
movies and pat phrases repetitively.
We call this scripting or delayed echolalia.
So today I'm going to cover why kids with autism script so much and give some strategies
to reduce it if it becomes a problem.
Hi I'm Dr. Mary Barbera, autism mom, board certified behavior analyst and online course
creator.
Each week I provide you with some of my ideas about turning autism around.
So if you haven't subscribed to my YouTube channel, you can do that now.
Delayed echolalia was one of the first signs of autism in my son Lucas when he was under
two years old before I was aware that he was showing signs with autism.
My husband and I used to take Lucas to the park and read him ... They had signs there
that said, "Please do not feed the ducks."
So my husband would read the sign please do not feed the ducks and he would add quack,
quack.
Then Lucas would run to the next sign which was several feet down the way and my husband
would again read the sign, please do not feed the ducks.
Quack, quack.
So a week or two after we would go to the museum in the middle of the night, Lucas might
wake up and he would say, ple do not feed the duck.
Quack, quack.
I actually counted these eight words, please do not feed the duck quack, quack and I added
these eight words to Lucas's list of 20 words that he said pretty consistently, not realizing
that these eight words were not functional and were actually a sign of autism and that
sign was called delayed echolalia.
So over the years as a behavior analyst, I've had clients with a lot of scripting in delayed
echolalia.
One former client named Alex scripted 500 times a day when I first started with him.
Another client is having trouble reciting road names and traffic sign details.
For many of my clients, scripting lines from favorite movies is really big issue that interferes
with home and school life.
Like in the case of Alex who scripted 500 times per day when he was in sixth grade,
this high level of delayed echolalia even affected our job placement decisions for him.
Parents and teachers don't know how to deal with delayed echolalia or scripting, so I'm
going to cover some things to think about.
Before we start talking about this as a problem behavior or strategies to fix it, I do want
to point out that the fact that children are talking and saying anything, even if they're
scripting from the same movie over and over again, the fact that they're talking is a
good thing.
It's just an issue if it happens at high rates and interferes with functional communication.
But if I have my choice between a totally silent child who's not talking at all or a
child that's scripting constantly, I would have more success working initially with that
child who is scripting.
Because we know that they can speak and it's just a matter of getting that language under
some instructional control when the floodgates will open.
So the first step in reducing scripting or delayed echolalia would be assessment.
What does the child say at all?
What did they say repetitively?
When does the scripting happen?
Is it when they're alone, when you're trying to engage them in other tasks and how often
does it occur?
Lucas doesn't script a lot anymore but just yesterday, he said, "Please do not kick."
Which we have no idea where this came from, he's never had a problem with kicking and
I don't think anyone, especially me, has ever said please do not kick to Lucas.
He may have heard it with another kid years ago but once in a while we'll hear, please
do not kick.
Like every month or so, we'll hear please do not kick.
Which is kind of out of the blue, it's definitely not a problem.
Also yesterday he said, "It's okay.
It's not going to hurt."
When he banged his elbow while we were shopping.
So we have to make a plan for scripting.
For Lucas it's not an issue and we want to make sure that everybody is following the
plan.
For Lucas ignoring that please do not kick is what we do.
But for the second script that he said yesterday, it's not gonna hurt, I realized that that
script actually told me that he had hurt himself.
So I asked him what he had heard and I transferred that language into I hurt my elbow.
Dr. Carbone, Dr. Vincent Carbone who I've learned a time from over the years, he's a
behavior analyst, he gives lectures and talks about the three buttons.
I actually did a video blog on this many months ago, so you may want to check that out now.
But he described the three buttons of engagement with a child with autism and that middle button
with them responding without any problem behaviors means that you have the right language, the
right directions at the right level with the right reinforcement.
You're going to want to see that middle button being pushed.
If you don't have everything right, the skills are that you're trying to teach her too hard
or too easy or you don't have the right level of reinforcement, what you'll see is either
escape.
Like, this is boring, I want to be done, when can we be done, they might actually fall to
the ground or run away from you.
Or will have that other button on the other side which is self stim or scripting behavior.
So you might be trying to teach the child something or engage with the child and they
are scripting.
So if you use Dr. Carbone's three-button theory, that self-stimulatory behavior, scripting,
is a problem behavior and it does interfere with our middle button of great language and
great instructional control.
So in Alex, we were able to use that three button theory.
Actually, for all of my clients who are talking but not conversational who have problems with
scripting, we really analyze things from those three buttons.
If we get a lot of scripting or a lot of escape, either verbalizations or physical movements
of escape, we have to think that it's our analysis that needs to be sharper, our teaching
procedures that need to be better, our reinforcement systems that need to be better.
So with Alex we were able over time to get his scripting and his delayed echolalia down
from 500 a day to single digits.
Another client I had who I did an analysis on, I did a functional behavior assessment
on across three different settings.
When I started with her at age five, she had 90% of the intervals.
She had some level of self-stimulatory and scripting behavior.
We were able to take that client and get her down from 90% of the intervals with scripting
and self stim to zero.
So what did I do?
What did we do to get this scripting and delayed echolalia down?
It involved years of great ABA, systematic step-by-step programming, thinking about the
three buttons, thinking about reinforcement, the right level of demands and the right reinforcement.
To get started using my approach, which will help you start turning things around for kids
with autism, you can sign up for our free workshop at marybarbera.com/workshops.
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