“Hey you!”: An extension of the speaker immersion protocol to recruit the attention of a listener

The speaker immersion protocol (SIP) is an intervention that attempts to increase the frequency and spontaneity of a child's spoken communication. SIP has demonstrated effectiveness with increasing mands and other verbal operants (Ross et al., 2006); however, prior investigations have not examined SIP in the context of needing to recruit the social attention of a communicative partner in the presence of an establishing operation. The current study sought to extend the literature on SIP by adding a recruitment for social attention component to the intervention with two children with Autism spectrum disorder and limited spontaneous language. Prior to intervention, both participants engaged in low levels of target-requesting behavior even when a communication partner was readily available close by. After receiving an intervention designed to increase vocal requests, both participants demonstrated a significant increase in the number of vocal requests they emitted; however, that did not generalize to making appropriate bids for attention until recruitment for attention was embedded within SIP. Future studies should continue to examine the most effective and efficient ways to improve both the quantity and the quality of autistic children's social communication.