Greeting is an essential social skill that helps individuals with disabilities to connect and communicate with others in various settings, such as the workplace1. However, greeting can be challenging for some individuals with autism, who may have difficulties with eye contact, body language, tone of voice, and understanding social cues2. Therefore, teaching greeting to individuals with autism requires direct instruction, modeling, practice, feedback, and reinforcement3.
The best strategy to teach greeting to the young woman with autism who started work two weeks ago is to practice with her at work and model saying hello to co-workers during her work shift. This strategy has several advantages:
It provides natural and frequent opportunities for the young woman to practice greeting in the context where she needs to use it4.
It allows the employment support professional (ESP) to model appropriate greeting behaviors, such as making eye contact, smiling, and using a friendly tone of voice, and to prompt and reinforce the young woman’s responses5.
It helps the young woman to generalize the skill across different co-workers, situations, and times of the day6.
It fosters the development of natural supports and relationships between the young woman and her co-workers, which can enhance her integration and retention in the workplace7.
The other strategies are not as effective as the one above, because:
Helping her prepare an index card reminder to say hello in response to being greeted may be helpful as a visual cue, but it does not address the underlying skill deficits or the need for practice and feedback8.
Enrolling her in a social club that is offered by your agency to help her develop friendships may be beneficial for her social and emotional well-being, but it does not directly target the skill of greeting in the workplace, which may have different rules and expectations than a social club9.
Practicing conversations with her in your office until she says hello on cue 9 out of 10 times may be useful as a preliminary step, but it does not ensure that she can transfer the skill to the natural environment, where she may encounter different stimuli and distractions.
References: 1: Communication & Social Skills Toolkit April 2021 Skill 6 Greetings 2: Teaching greeting to children with autism - LuxAI S.A. 3: Teaching Greetings: How to Respond to Hello | Blue Parachute 4: Naturalistic Intervention Fact Sheet - National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder 5: Modeling - National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder 6: Generalization and Maintenance of Skills - National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder 7: Natural Supports in the Workplace: A Reexamination of Supported Employment 8: Visual Supports - National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder 9: Social Skills and Autism Spectrum Disorder - Autism Speaks : Discrete Trial Training - National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder
