Below is a general skill sequence for getting learner’s started with greeting others.
Greetings often serve as the initial steps in social reciprocation. Beginning with a straightforward gesture, such as a wave, can pave the way for more advanced social interactions in the future. For successful initiation, it's essential that the learner can orient themselves towards another stimulus when guided by the speaker's voice. Additionally, developing fluency in maintaining eye contact can be advantageous for the learner. It's crucial to ensure that the experience is highly reinforcing, which will, in turn, strengthen the association of social interactions with positive reinforcement.
How this skill area relates to your assessments!
This skill area aligns with various assessments and their respective domains, with milestone and domain codes provided for reference. Additionally, DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for Autism are included to help clinicians identify how this skill area potentially supports medical necessity in relation to the diagnosis.
VB-MAPP (Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program)
Listener Responding, LR 2-M, Responds to hearing his own name 5 times
Social Behavior and Social Play, SBSP 3-M, Spontaneously makes eye contact with other children 5 times (TO: 60 min.)
AFLS (Assessment of Functional Living Skills)
Social Awareness & Manners, SA1, Returns appropriate greetings
Social Awareness & Manners, SA18, Greets and interacts in a socially acceptable manner
Basic Skills, BS38, Greets other employees
Phone, PH3, Returns greetings over phone
Retail, RT17, Greets and assists customers
DSM-V Diagnostic Criteria for Autism
A2, Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.
This is a list of treatment plan goals. These are different from the goals you will find in the skill sequence below. Your treatment plan goals encompass any number of goals from the skill sequence. Sometime they will include multiple goals from the sequence (”Learner will label 5 toys”) and sometimes the treatment plan goal will be simply consist of a really important goal from the skill sequence (”Will label caregiver”). An analogy I like to use goes as follows: Each skill sequence goal (commonly known as a “target”) represent each stair in a flight of stairs. The treatment plan goal is the flight itself.
Treatment plan goal ideas for this particular skill area are as follows:
Learner will wave at a peer when greeted in exchange for a highly preferred item or activity.
Learner will wave at a peer when greeted in exchange for social reinforcement.
Component Skills
Your learner may need to be fluent in these component skills first before introducing this goal/skill area. Component skills for this skill sequence may include skill areas that are fundamental to other areas. Fluency in the skill areas listed below may increase the likelihood that your learner will succeed in this skill sequence and those afterward.
Below is a possible skill sequence for working on increasing your learner’s ability to complete nonverbal greetings. Note that every learner is different and that you likely will need to tweak and vary some programming to their needs. Click the triangle icon to view the full description for each skill in the sequence/area.
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#1 Orients Toward Therapist for High-Value SR+
How to Run
Note when a learner is engaged in a moderate/neutral/low value activity
Say their name, say hi, and wave at 1-5 feet. Ex: “Hi Brendan!” with a wave.
Learner should orient toward the therapist.
Immediately reinforce the learner with a high value item/activity contingent on them orienting toward the therapist.
Additional Notes
Physical prompts may be necessary in the beginning stages of this program.
It may be necessary for the learner to know that the therapist has the high value item so that they are amply motivated to attend to what the therapist is trying to teach. However, once the learner understands the contingency, hiding the item from sight may be helpful in conditioning the desired behavior as a response to “Hi…” (as opposed to the behavior occurring as a makeshift mand).
Materials
Research/Resources
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#2 Orients Toward Another Adult for High-Value SR+
How to Run
Note when a learner is engaged in a moderate/neutral/low value activity
Have another adult (not the therapist) say their name, say “Hi”, and wave at 1-5 feet. Ex: “Hi Brendan!” with a wave.
Learner should orient toward the adult.
The adult should immediately reinforce the learner with a high value item/activity contingent on them orienting towards them.
Additional Notes
Physical prompts may be necessary in the beginning stages of this program.
Materials
Research/Resources
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#3 Waves at Therapist for High-Value SR+
How to Run
Note when a learner is engaged in a moderate/neutral/low value activity
Say their name, say hi, and wave at 1-5 feet. Ex: “Hi Brendan!” with a wave.
Learner should orient toward the therapist and wave as well.
Immediately reinforce the learner with a high value item/activity contingent on them orienting toward the therapist and waving.
Additional Notes
Physical prompts may be necessary in the beginning stages of this program.
Materials
Research/Resources
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#4 Waves at Another Adult for High-Value SR+
How to Run
Note when a learner is engaged in a moderate/neutral/low value activity
Have another adult (not the therapist) say their name, say “Hi”, and wave at 1-5 feet. Ex: “Hi Brendan!” with a wave.
Learner should orient toward the adult and wave at them.
The adult should immediately reinforce the learner with a high value item/activity contingent on them orienting towards them and waving.
Additional Notes
Physical prompts may be necessary in the beginning stages of this program.
Materials
Research/Resources
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#5 Waves at Peer for High-Value SR+
How to Run
Note when a learner is engaged in a moderate/neutral/low value activity
Have a peer say their name, say “Hi”, and wave at 1-5 feet. Ex: “Hi Brendan!” with a wave.
Learner should orient toward the peer and wave at them.
The peer should immediately reinforce the learner with a high value item/activity contingent on them orienting towards them and waving.
Additional Notes
Physical prompts may be necessary in the beginning stages of this program.
Materials
Research/Resources
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#6 Waves at Another Adult for High-Value SR+ (10 feet)
How to Run
Note when a learner is engaged in a moderate/neutral/low value activity
Have another adult (not the therapist) say their name, say “Hi”, and wave at 10 feet. Ex: “Hi Brendan!” with a wave.
Learner should orient toward the adult and wave at them.
The adult should immediately reinforce the learner with a high value item/activity contingent on them orienting towards them and waving.
Additional Notes
Physical prompts may be necessary in the beginning stages of this program.
Materials
Research/Resources
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#7 Waves at Peer for High-Value SR+ (10 feet)
How to Run
Note when a learner is engaged in a moderate/neutral/low value activity
Have a peer say their name, say “Hi”, and wave at 10 feet. Ex: “Hi Brendan!” with a wave.
Learner should orient toward the peer and wave at them.
The peer should immediately reinforce the learner with a high value item/activity contingent on them orienting towards them and waving.
Additional Notes
Physical prompts may be necessary in the beginning stages of this program.
Materials
Research/Resources
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#8 Waves at Another Adult for Mod-Value SR+ (10 feet)
How to Run
Note when a learner is engaged in a neutral/low value activity
Have another adult (not the therapist) say their name, say “Hi”, and wave at 10 feet. Ex: “Hi Brendan!” with a wave.
Learner should orient toward the adult and wave at them.
The adult should immediately reinforce the learner with a moderate value item/activity contingent on them orienting towards them and waving.
Additional Notes
Physical prompts may be necessary in the beginning stages of this program.
Materials
Research/Resources
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#9 Waves at Peer for Mod-Value SR+ (10 feet)
How to Run
Note when a learner is engaged in a neutral/low value activity
Have a peer say their name, say “Hi”, and wave at 10 feet. Ex: “Hi Brendan!” with a wave.
Learner should orient toward the peer and wave at them.
The peer should immediately reinforce the learner with a moderate value item/activity contingent on them orienting towards them and waving.
Additional Notes
Physical prompts may be necessary in the beginning stages of this program.
Materials
Research/Resources
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#10 Waves at Another Adult for Continuation of High-Value SR+ (10 feet)
How to Run
Note when a learner is engaged in a high value activity
Have another adult (not the therapist) say their name, say “Hi”, and wave at 10 feet. Ex: “Hi Brendan!” with a wave.
Learner should orient toward the adult and wave at them.
If they do not, therapist may temporarily block access to the high value item/activity they are engaged with and prompt them to look and wave.
Upon the learner looking/waving, therapist should immediately return the high value reinforcer to the learner.
Additional Notes
Physical prompts may be necessary in the beginning stages of this program.
Materials
Research/Resources
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#11 Waves at Peer for Continuation of High-Value SR+ (10 feet)
How to Run
Note when a learner is engaged in a high value activity
Have a peer say their name, say “Hi”, and wave at 10 feet. Ex: “Hi Brendan!” with a wave.
Learner should orient toward the peer and wave at them.
If they do not, therapist may temporarily block access to the high value item/activity they are engaged with and prompt them to look and wave.
Upon the learner looking/waving, therapist should immediately return the high value reinforcer to the learner.
Additional Notes
Physical prompts may be necessary in the beginning stages of this program.
Materials
Research/Resources
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#12 Waves at Another Adult for Social Praise (10 feet)
How to Run
Note when a learner is engaged in a high value activity
Have another adult (not the therapist) say their name, say “Hi”, and wave at 10 feet. Ex: “Hi Brendan!” with a wave.
Learner should orient toward the adult and wave at them.
Upon the learner looking/waving, therapist and adult should immediately offer preferred social praise to the learner.
Additional Notes
Physical prompts may be necessary in the beginning stages of this program.
Social praise doesn’t always mean getting loud and wild. Some kids prefer a gentler tone or more physical praise (like tickles or head rubs). Pay attention to how your learner responds to the varying forms of social praise to ensure you aren’t making this process averse.
Materials
Research/Resources
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#13 Waves at Peer for Social Praise (10 feet)
How to Run
Note when a learner is engaged in a high value activity
Have a peer (not the therapist) say their name, say “Hi”, and wave at 10 feet. Ex: “Hi Brendan!” with a wave.
Learner should orient toward the peer and wave at them.
Upon the learner looking/waving, therapist and peer should immediately offer preferred social praise to the learner.
Additional Notes
Physical prompts may be necessary in the beginning stages of this program.
Social praise doesn’t always mean getting loud and wild. Some kids prefer a gentler tone or more physical praise (like tickles or head rubs). Pay attention to how your learner responds to the varying forms of social praise to ensure you aren’t making this process averse.
Materials
Research/Resources
Concurrent Skills
Working on these skills at the same time could help with goal mastery. Maybe your learner has mastered these skills already. Perhaps they are already listed as component skills above. That’s okay! Targeting other learning channels might help your learner.
These are the possible next steps for learners who have mastered, or are mastering, the skills listed above. Note that new skill areas may require fluency in other component skills not listed above. Also, you can introduce composite skill sequences prematurely to keep your learner progressing, as generativity may occur earlier than expected.
Follow the link below to better understand component-composite analysis.
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Research and Resources
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Disclaimer
Consistent with ethical obligations outlined by the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB), users acknowledge that goal selection/direction is the responsibility of the BCBA. Users understand that goals should be tailored to the learner while ultimately involving the input of clients/stakeholders. Users understand their ethical obligations to the client/stakeholder concerning the selection, implementation, design, and minimization of risk regarding behavior change interventions as outlined in BACB Code. As such, this skill sequence serves as a general framework for generating ideas around this particular skill area and not as an assessment or curriculum.
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Intro to Reinforcer/Preference Expansion
Single Actions with Common Toys
Following Gestures
Intro to Eye Contact
Intro to Peers
Intro to Sitting 
Intro to Handholding
Intro to Token Economies
Approaching Others When Asked
Greetings (Verbal)