Many children on the Autism Spectrum benefit from social skills training, usually in the form of a group that helps with social interactions with similar aged peers. These same children seem to benefit from memorizing "scripts," or stock phrases, to use in certain situations so they don't have to figure out how to "read" a situation, which can be difficult for them. Actually, some of the most polite children I know use these "scripts" when interacting with adults.
While my son is in no way on the spectrum, he too could benefit from the learning of scripts, especially when his amygdala hijacks his frontal lobe, i.e., when his emotions get in the way of his reason. While taking deep breaths and counting back from 10 certainly helps, sometimes even I find it helpful to say to someone who upsets me "Let's just agree to disagree on this and move on." For me, one of the hardest things is to let my son find his own scripts that reflect his personality and not my own.
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