1. Presented By: Katie Cole, MS, BCBA and Cassondra M. Gayman, MS, BCBA
A Verbal Behavior Approach to Teaching Language to Children with Autism
Presented By: Katie Cole, MS, BCBA and Cassondra M. Gayman, MS, BCBA

2. Mariposa School background
Who we are
What we do
How we do it

3. In the next 90 minutes we hope to:
Provide an overview of ABA
Discuss basic behavioral principles and procedures
Overview of Verbal Behavior
Discuss the main verbal operants
Common components of a VB program
The importance of the mand
Teaching procedures
NET
Intensive Teaching
Q & A

4. What is Applied Behavior Analysis?
The modern form of the philosophy of behaviorism
Skinner laid the foundation for modern behaviorism in 1938
ABA is the science from which procedures derived from principles of behavior are systematically applied to improve socially significant behaviors. Cooper, Heron, Heward (1987).
Principles applied to improve socially significant behaviors
Analysis of behavior used to identify variables (causes) for behavior
Laid foundation with the formulation of the law of reinforcment
At first principles applied to the most severe of behaviors

5. What is Behavior? Anything a living organism says or does
Getting an A on a test is an Outcome
Effective studying is a Behavior
Dead man test
Skinner distinguished between operant and reflexive behavior.
Operant = voluntary (affected by reinforcement)
Reflex behavior = involuntary (salivating, knee jerk)
Skinner later (1957) defined language as behavior in his book Verbal Behavior
All behavior can be measured
Dead man can do it - not behavior
Therefore it too (language) is affected by principles of behavior (ABA).

6. Who Benefits from ABA?
Troubled teens, typical children, parents, business people, person’s with developmental disabilities, and you and me.
1965 Lovaas, Schaeffer, & Simmons decreased self-injury in children with Autism.
1987 Lovaas study to demonstrate efficacy of ABA as treatment with children with Autism.
Teens – study habits, typical children = eating habits, parents = parenting skills, business = PM/Blue Cross

7. Why Do We Do What We Do? All behavior has a function
Identifying the function tells us
the conditions in which the behavior may occur
a possibly effective treatment method / how to respond to the behavior
FORM VS. FUNCTION

8. What are the Functions of Behavior?
Escape/Avoidance – escaping or avoiding a demand situation
Often occur during work type situations
Attention – a behavior to gain the attention of others
This can be positive or negative attention
Access – a behavior to gain access to an object or situation
Food, toys, warmth
Automatic – a behavior that “feels good
Self-Stimulatory or Stereotypy.

9. How to Determine Function?
Three Levels of Assessment
Functional Assessment
Informal/indirect
Record reviews
Interviews
Checklists
Descriptive
Data collection in natural settings
Frequency Measures
ABC data
Scatterplots
Experimental (Functional Analysis)
Probes in natural setting
Analogues
Should only be conducted with the supervision of BCBA
Strengths of Informal = Includes those who will implement program, Relatively quick and easy
Weaknesses of Informal = Relies on, perhaps biased, recall
Frequency = cycles across days, Scatter = patterns within days
ABC = provides information on both antecedents and consequences.
Do we talk about Antecedent and Consequence here?

10. What next? Treatment should be based on function
Identify behavior targeted for change
Prevention (Antecedent) strategies should also be put into place
Replacement behaviors should always be taught
Treatment plan based on behavior principles
Once identified the function, how are we going to increase or decrease the behavior

11. Interventions Based on Function
Attention
Access to Tangibles
Escape/ Avoidance
Automatic – Self/Sensory Stimulation
Prevention Strategies
Teach manding (requesting) skills
Set up routine of regular attention delivery.
Give 8 positive comments to every negative 1.
Teach manding (requesting) skills
Set up routine and schedule reinforcing activities frequently throughout the day
Pair work area with high rates of reinforcement
Gradually fade in demands
Place simple demands you can prompt
Enrich environment (music, color, toys)
Engage child in preferred activities during day
Teach child functional play skills
When behavior occurs
Ignore behavior/ walk away
Short time out from reinforcement (with supervision) then redirect to a neutral activity.
Count to 5 to yourself after problem behavior ceases then provide opportunity to mand.
Continue with demand unless behavior will cause serious bodily harm.
Block access to reinforcment until compliance is gained.
Physically prompt when necessary.
Analyze own behavior after each episode to prevent future behaviors.
Ignore mild behaviors that will not cause injury.
Block potentially harmful behaviors such as self-injury.
Redirect to another activity once behavior has ceased for 5-10 seconds.

12. Principles and Procedures:
When we talk about increasing behavior, we’re talking about the procedure called REINFORCEMENT
When we talk about decreasing behavior, we’re talking about the procedure called PUNISHMENT
Reinforcement:Increase as Punishment:Decrease

13. Principles and Procedures:
Reinforcement (increase the response):
A consequence follows a behavior and increases the future frequency of that behavior under similar circumstances

14. Principles and Procedures:
Positive vs. Negative Reinforcement
Both INCREASE behavior!
Positive Reinforcement
Giving something a person finds desirable after the behavior occurs
Negative Reinforcement
Removing something that the individual finds aversive.

15. Principles and Procedures:
Positive Reinforcement Example:
Situation - A child sees a candy bar in the grocery store and wants it.
Child screams “I want candy” and throws a tantrum. Adult hands him the candy. (Reinforcement of inappropriate behavior)
Child signs or says ‘candy’. Adult hands him the candy. (Reinforcement of appropriate behavior)
Discussion: In both examples, the child has learned that his behavior gets him what he wants, so he is likely to repeat this behavior next time.

16. Principles and Procedures:
Negative Reinforcement Example:
Situation: The radio is playing loudly in the room.
The child comes into the room and begins screaming. Somebody rushes over to turn down the radio.
(Reinforcement of inappropriate behavior)
The child comes in and covers his ears saying “Too loud”. Somebody rushes over to turn down the radio.
(Reinforcement of appropriate behavior)
Discussion: In both examples, the child has learned that his behavior gets him what he wants, so he is likely to repeat this behavior next time.

17. Principles and Procedures:
Punishment (decrease the response):
A consequence follows a behavior and decreases the future frequency of that behavior under similar circumstances

18. Principles and Procedures:
Positive vs. Negative Punishment
Both DECREASE behavior!
Positive Punishment
Applying something the individual finds aversive
Negative Punishment
Taking away something the individual finds pleasurable right after the behavior has occurred.

19. Principles and Procedures:
Situation: Teenager misses his curfew.
Positive Punishment Example:
Parent states that he has to rake the yard this weekend. (Application of something aversive)
Negative Punishment Example:
Parent states that he cannot attend a planned event. (Removal of a reinforcing or desired activity)

20. Principles and Procedures:
Problems with punishment:
May elicit aggression or other emotional side effects
May result in escape or avoidance behaviors
May be negatively reinforcing for the person using punishment --- misuse/overuse of punishment
Because of these problems…
Punishment as LAST RESORT

21. Principles and Procedures:
Extinction:
Removing or withholding the consequence (reinforcement) that maintains behavior. Discontinuing reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior .
Results in a DECREASE in frequency of the behavior.
Examples:
Soda machine
Candy Isle

22. Principles and Procedures:
Differential Reinforcement:
2 separate forms of behavior
One is reinforced (increased)
One is extinguished (decreased)
Examples:
Request for candy

23. Principles and Procedures:
Shaping:
A process through which we gradually modify existing behavior into what we want it to be. Successive approximation toward terminal behavior. Uses differential reinforcement.
Examples
Swing sign example
Banana vocal example

24. Principles and Procedures:
Prompting:
Assistance provided to promote correct responding.
Full physical, partial physical, model…
Full echoic, phonemic…
Fading:
Systematic removal of the prompt

25. Principles and Procedures:
All of the above mentioned principles and procedures have a solid and extensive foundation of empirical research. There have been over 1500 published studies within the past 60 years establishing these principles of behavior.

26. Verbal Behavior
Language is learned behavior, acquired and maintained by the same principles of behavior responsible for non-language behavior (Cooper, Heron, Heward, 2007).
In 1957, Skinner published Verbal Behavior.
Verbal behavior is defined by function rather than form

27. Verbal Behavior Function vs. Form Formal properties of language:
Topography = Form. Form of language can be measured by phonemes, morphemes, lexicon, syntax, grammar, and semantics.
Also can be classified as nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives…
Functional properties of language:
Involve the causes of the response.
We need to look at BOTH!

28. Skinner’s Classification of Language
Skinner’s classification of language different from linguists, who classify words as parts of speech (noun, pronoun, verb, adjective etc…)
“This is an apple.” = APPLE classified as noun.
What does that tell us?
For a child with no functional way of communicating their wants an needs, what does that tell us? Let’s look at how Skinner would classify language.

29. Behavioral Classification of Language
Mand (Requesting): Asking for reinforcers you want.
Requires a Motivating Operation (MO) & specifies its own reinforcer.
Only operant that benefits the speaker
Tact (Labeling): Naming or identifying objects, actions, events etc…
Does not specify it’s own reinforcer & benefits the listener
Echoic (Vocal Imitation): Repeating what someone said
Intraverbal: Answering questions or having conversations where your words are controlled by other words.
Talk about what an EO/MO is.
Skinner classified language by 6 major verbal operants – Textual and Transcription were also in the 6, we will not discuss those at this time.

30. Apple as a Mand You’re hungry and want something to eat
You have an MO (Motivation) to ask for food
You say “APPLE” and get the apple to eat
The reinforcer is getting the apple
The speaker benefits from this operant
We say an MO or EO is in effect. We often times contrive motivational situations in order to elicit the mand

31. APPLE AS A TACT
Someone shows you a pictures of an apple and asks you what it is. You say “APPLE” you have given a Tact for the apple.
LABEL, NAME
The source of reinforcement is praise or approval, not the apple
Socially mediated

32. Apple as an Echoic
In an echoic, the person “Echoes” the same sounds that were heard
Someone says “APPLE” and you repeat “APPLE”
The reinforcement for doing so may be praise or approval

33. Apple as an Intraverbal
Someone says “What is the fruit that’s red and grows on trees”. You say “Apple”
The item is not present
The answer does not specify the reinforcer
There is no point-to-point correspondence with an intraverbal. It benefits the listener, not the speaker

34. Apple as Receptive
Three pictures are presented in front of you someone asks you to “Touch the picture of the apple.”
The reinforcer is praise
Got get the apple

35. Why Do We Say What We Say? All language has a function
The same word (apple) has many meanings
Many children with Autism do not generalize a word across operants.
Just because a child can label an apple doesn’t mean they can mand for an apple.
This is why we must focus on the function of language as well as the form.

36. We Must Teach All The “Meanings” of a Word
Mand
Tact
Echoic
Apple
Intraverbal
Receptive
RFFC
Textual

37. Receptive Versus Expressive
Many other philosophies classify language as either expressive or receptive.
Problems arise when we talk about all the functions of expressive language
Using the expressive umbrella masks important distinctions b/c of failure to merge across operants.

38. “VB vs ABA?” VB IS ABA!! “What is the difference between VB and ABA?”
Verbal behavior involves the same behavioral principles that make up the analysis of nonverbal behavior. No new principles are required. The principles implemented in a VB program are the same ones that have the solid and extensive empirical research foundation discussed earlier.

39. Verbal Behavior
When people ask the question, “What’s the difference between “VB and ABA?” what they likely mean is, “What is the difference between a ‘traditional ABA’ program and an ABA program using VB methodology?”

40. ABA and Autism Treatment
Ivar Lovaas (1987)
Significant advancements in the field of ABA, specifically related to teaching children with autism.
Research suggesting ABA is an effective treatment for autism
This “method” uses principles of reinforcement, shaping, chaining, prompting/fading, extinction… to teach vocal language as well as a variety of other behaviors, including imitation, matching-to-sample, and following commands behaviors. The main method in which these behaviors are taught is through Discrete Trial Training (DTT)

41. Discrete Trial Training (DTT)
Breaking a skill into smaller components
Teaching one sub-skill at a time until mastery
SD ----Response----Consequence
Providing prompting and prompt fading as necessary
Use of reinforcement procedures

42. What about VB? Does VB use DTT to teach skills? YES!
A solid VB program will also use reinforcement, shaping, chaining, prompting/fading, extinction… to teach a variety of vocal and nonvocal behaviors to children with autism.

43. Verbal Behavior
What does a VB program have that a “traditional ABA” program tends not to have?
A functional analysis of language!

44. Verbal Behavior
A VB program is based on a functional analysis of language, rather than a structural one.
Traditional linguistics receptive/expressive distinction, which focuses on form rather than function, dominates assessment and intervention programs for kids with autism.

45. Verbal Behavior
Recall 3 of the operants discussed earlier. The mand, tact, and intraverbal would all be classified as “expressive language”. This structural classification system will mask important distinctions.
Different sources of antecedent control
Failure to emerge across operants without training.

46. Other differences…
Other differences between a “traditional ABA” program and a VB program:
Pairing
Balance of NET and DTT
Data Methods – cold probe
Mix and Vary across operants
Errorless teaching
Error correction
Transfer Procedures
Focus on the mand

47. Importance of the Mand Specifies what speaker is motivated by
Allows us to establishing rapport with the learner
Essential in teaching other skills
First operant learned by typical children
If we know the student wants we know what reinforcers to deliver
We are more willing to work for people who give us reinforcers therfore…
st operant – often 1 of the last addressed with children with Autism

48. Importance of the Mand Key to replacing problem behaviors
Only operant that benefits the speaker
Essential for advanced social interactions
Doesn’t necessary emerge by training the other verbal operants
Many problem behaviors are maintained by access to items, activities, and escape of aversive. If we teach student to mand for item there is not a reason to engage in SIB or aggression.
Can mand to peers – results in ability to teach more skills such as social skills (conversation)
Often has to be taught with our guys b/c doesn’t develop on its own.

49. Teaching Manding in the Natural Environment
Briefly describe what NET is and show video of teaching mand in the NET

50. Elements of a Good VB Program

51. Elements of a Good VB Program

52. Elements of a Good VB Program

53. Elements of a Good VB Program

54. Elements of a Good VB Program: Video Examples

55. Journals
The Analysis of Verbal Behavior
The Behavior Analyst
Behavior Analysts in Practice
The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
The Journal of Early and Intensive Behavior Intervention 
The Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis 
The Behavior Analyst Today 
The International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy 

56. Websites Association for Behavior Analysis www.abainternational.org/
North Carolina Association for Behavior Analysis
Surgeon General's Report on ABA and Autism
Behavior Analysts, Inc
Behavior Analyst Certification Board
Mark Sundberg
Association for Science in Autism Treatment
The Carbone Clinic
Establishing Operations
Christina Burke, MA
First Signs
Healing Thresholds 
Yahoo Groups Verbal Behaivor, DTT-NET, ABA Job Connections, Wake County ASNC

57. Books
The Verbal Behavior Approach, By: Mary Lynch Barbera, RN, MSN, BCBA
The Out of Sync Child Has Fun, By: Carol Stock Kranowitz, MA
Functional Behavior Assessment for People with Autism, By: Beth A. Glasberg, Ph.D
Functional Assessment, By: Lynette K. Chandler and Carol M. Dahlquist
Verbal Behavior Analysis, By: R. Douglas Greer and Denise E. Ross
Applied Behavior Analysis, By: John O. Cooper, Timothy E. Heron, and William L. Heward
The Picture Exchange Communication System, By: Lori Frost, MS, CCC/SLP and Andy Bondy, Ph.D
Teaching Language to Children with Autism or Other Developmental Disabilities, By: Mark L. Sundberg and James W. Partington

58. Informative Videos/DVDs
Establishing Operations, Inc
Teaching Verbal Behavior in the Natural Environment: Teaching Signs
Teaching Verbal Behavior in the Natural Environment: Teaching Vocal Mands (Requesting)
Teaching Verbal Behavior in the Intensive Teaching Environment: Getting Started
Teaching Verbal Behavior in the Intensive Teaching Environment: Teaching the Tact. "Expressive Label

59. Thank You For Attending