Verbal Behavior - A Systematic Guide to Programming Early, Intermediate, and Advanced Language Skills.
Language and communication are perhaps the most valuable social skills for human beings. Whether we use hand signals, facial expressions, body language or our words, communication is a skill that we all learn and develop with the help of our interaction with others in our environment.
But teaching language & communication to children with autism is challenging. It’s not just about increasing the vocabulary or teaching them to read a book. What good would a vocabulary of 500 words do, if that child cannot ask for his favorite snack or tell you he’s hurt?
During a conversation, Aarti (my Rockstar behavior analyst friend) and I were discussing the significance of systematic programming for language skills for children with Autism. We were concerned over some IEP’s where the language and communication goals did not seem to follow a natural developmental progression. If I’m teaching arbitrary goals using arbitrary reinforcers, am I not setting up the child for rote responding? Will that not create a bigger language and social barrier in the longer run?
Additionally, both Aarti and I have received training in Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior and our practice is strongly impacted by that understanding. The value of understanding the functional analysis of language (i.e., why someone is saying what they’re saying), rather than the structural analysis (i.e., how they are saying) cannot be overlooked. Is it truly important to push a child to speak in full sentences during early language intervention? Is the length of the sentence more important than the quality of the sentence?
So, we decided to break language acquisition into 3 broad groups- early, intermediate and advanced learners. For each group we identified 3-4 critical foundational skills, upon which further skills would be developed. We identified barriers to teaching those skills and then outlined strategies to overcome those barriers; strategies that are backed by research papers and studies.
Building Early Language Skills
If we look at the communication skills of an early learner, say 1-2 year-old, spoken words would probably list way down on the list. Children learn to be effective communicators even before they have words. They smile when they see their parent, reach out for that balloon hanging above, point to the toy that fell on the floor, bring things to show us, do something funny and look right at us! It’s only later when gurgling sounds shape into babbling and then into cute word approximations, does speech take over. Even then, our hands, facial expressions and body language are an integral part of how we communicate.
So, should this not be a basic consideration when programming for early language goals for a child with Autism, rather than heading straight for teaching spoken words or the use of a speech device?
Let’s take eye contact; we have to find creative ways to teach a child the value of eye contact- not by repeatedly calling his name and rewarding him with a cookie or holding a cookie piece near/between our eyes, but by understanding the function of that behavior. In other words, why would a child want to look at me? And if/when he does look at me, what natural consequence can I provide immediately, so that the child finds the consequence rewarding and is encouraged to look at me again in the future?
Additionally, assessment of the selected goals is critical. One of the first language skills a child acquires are requests [babies cry/babble/sign (all requests) for milk]. Why? Because it improves that child’s life immediately. He wants milk. He cries. He gets the milk. If there’s only one skill I can teach a child with language deficits, it would be requesting. It empowers the child to interact with and control his environment, in an otherwise confusing, overwhelming and demanding world. If I could teach only 20 words/signs to a learner, I would want him to have all 20 words/signs as one-word requests (e.g., milk, mom, outside, water, bathroom, jump etc). To be able to request for 20 things in your environment, when you want those things. Say the word! Just say ‘milk’! Adding “I want” or saying “I want milk please”, adds no value to the child. He still only gets milk. Saying the full sentence doesn’t get him a bigger glass of milk with chocolate in it, does it? But it does add more effort for him. And I want to teach the child that language is easy to learn along with being functional.
Building a solid foundation with early language skills is a must before building more complex verbal skills. Aarti and I dug deeper into this topic in a webinar. Click here to view the full webinar- Building Early Language Skills.
Expanding Intermediate Language Skills
The next group we identified were intermediate learners who already have some pre-requisite language skills. They may be able to request for their favorite juice or repeat the word ‘kindergarten’, but they aren’t able to apply that skill when someone asks them ‘what would you like to drink?’ or ‘What grade are you in?’
Having an understanding of the Verbal Operants, highlights why we say/do the things we say/do. If I can teach you to imitate me to say/sign ‘juice’, my goal is not just to get you to imitate me. My goal is for you to use that word/sign to request for juice when you want it, without someone asking you “do you want juice?” Taking that further to then you being able to label/say ‘juice box’ when shown a juice box. Or maybe you finding the juice box in the kitchen pantry and bringing it to me, when I ask you to do so. Words can have different meanings, and to be an efficient language user (whether it’s speech, signs or pictures) one must be fluent in the different functions of language.
Another important consideration is understanding what motivates a behavior. Why is a paintbrush so valuable when I want to paint, versus when I want to eat a snack? That’s easy right? The contexts are different. When I’m painting, I value the paintbrush a lot more, and will ask or look for the paintbrush. To be able to use the context, play around with what one values at a given time, and then embed natural opportunities to teach specific skills requires careful observation and planning.
We took up this discussion in our next webinar. Click here to view the full webinar- Expanding Intermediate Language Skills
Teaching Advanced Language Skills
We called our final group the advanced learners. It is now when the focus can lean towards building complex listener and conversational skills. E.g., to be able to discriminate the details of someone else’s verbal behavior. There are many children who say ‘4 years old’ when asked ‘how are you?’ (confused with ‘how old are you?’), or say ‘circle’ when asked ‘what color is this? (confused with ‘what shape is it?’).
Few things jump out.
First, the distinction between mass trials (teaching one skill/behavior repeatedly, one after another) versus a mix and vary approach (weaving across different skills/programs). It teaches the child right from the beginning to attend to the question (verbal instruction) and not just respond in a rote manner.
Next, going back to teaching naturally. Use a variety of instructions (e.g., ‘do this’, ‘copy me’, ‘do like I do’). Use multiple examples of what you’re teaching. Teach the skill in different environments, with different people. Let the child learn to attend to the details.
Another recent finding we have is to use a starter sentence or a carrier phrase. So, when I ask, ‘what color is it’, I prompt you with the carrier phrase ‘it’s the color…’ and allow you to fill-in the sentence using the carrier phrase (‘it’s color red’). Now may be a good time to consider teaching those longer sentences we wrote off in early language training.
Lastly, many of our learners successfully develop elaborate language skills but still struggle with community interactions and personal relationships. Limited understanding of the nuances of a social relationship- facial expressions, tones, sarcasm and the dynamically changing motivations of the other person, make social interactions difficult for a lot of our learners. I go back to the importance of focusing on the foundational communication skills, like eye contact, joint attention and other non-vocal communication, so that I can now confidently and successfully move forward to teaching other complex behaviors. Perspective taking is a skill we need to learn more about and teach it to our learners in a way that builds confidence in their social skill set.
Our goal is not only to teach the children. Our goal is to teach the children 'how to learn'. Because we can't realistically teach them everything, one by one. We have to teach them to be able to functionally web across their existing skills and generalize their skills to their natural environment.
We discussed Teaching Advanced Language Skills in our final webinar in the Verbal Behavior Webinar Series. Click above to view the full webinar.
I’ll end with what I started this blog with- Language (spoken or unspoken) is the most important social skill. It enriches our life by allowing us to get the things we want and say no to the things that bother us. It enables us to be happy.
I hope that this content equips you with some simple tools and thoughtful questions to better understand language acquisition as well as become efficient clinicians planning language, communication and social skill goals for the children you serve & love.
Below is a list of references from our Verbal Behavior Webinar Series.
Skinner, B.F., (1957). Verbal Behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
Baer,D., Wolf, M., & Risley, T. (1968). Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 91-97.
Michael, J. (1993). Establishing operations. The behavior analyst, 16(2), 191-206.
Partington, J.W., & Sundberg, M. L., (1998). The assessment of basic language and learning skills. Pleasant Hill, CA: Behavior Analysts, Inc.
Sundberg, M. L., & Partington, J. W. (1988). Teaching language to children with autism or other developmental disabilities. Pleasant Hills, CA: Behavior Analysis.
Sundberg, M. L., & Michael, J. (2001). The benefits of Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior for children with autism. Behavior Modification, 25, 698-724.
Sundberg, M. L., Loeb, M., Hale, L., & Eigenheer, P. (2001). Contriving establishing operations to teach mands for information. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 18(1), 15-29.
Barbera, M. L., & Kubina, R. M., Jr (2005). Using transfer procedures to teach tacts to a child with autism. The Analysis of verbal behavior, 21 (1), 155-161.
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W.(2007). Applied Behavior Analysis(2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Sundberg, M. L. (2008) Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program: The VB-MAPP. 2nd Edition. Concord, CA: AVB Press.
Carbone, V. J., Sweeney- Kerwin, E., Attanasio, V., & Kasper, T., (2010). Increasing the vocal responding of children with autism and other developmental disabilities using manual sign language, mand training, prompt delay procedures, and vocal- prompting. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. 43, 705-709.
Sundberg, M. L., & Sundberg, C. A. (2011). Intraverbal behavior and verbal conditional discriminations in typically developing children and children with autism. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 27(1), 23-44.
Michael, J., Palmer, D. C., & Sundberg, M. L. (2011). The multiple control of verbal behavior. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 27(1), 3-22.
Ingvarsson, E.T. and Hollobaugh, T. (2011). A comparison of prompting tactics to establish intraverbals in children with Autism. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44: 659-644
McGreevy, P., Fry, T., & Cornwall, C. (2012). Essential for Living. Orlando: McGreevy
Carbone, V. J. (2013). The establishing operation and teaching verbal behavior. The Analysis of verbal behavior, 29(1), 45-49.
Causin, K. G., Albert, K. M., Carbone, V. J., & Sweeney-Kerwin, E. J. (2013). The role of joint control in teaching listener responding to children with autism and other developmental disabilities. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 7(9), 997-1011.
Carbone, Vincent. J., O’Brien, Leigh., Sweeney- Kerwin, Emily & Albert, Kristin. M., (2013) Teaching Eye Contact to Children with Autism: A Conceptual Analysis and Single Case Study. Education & Treatment of Children, New York, Vol 36, Iss.2., 36. 139-159 (May 2013)
Shillingsburg, M. A., Bowen, C. N., Valentino, A. L., & Pierce, L. E. (2014). Mands for information using “who?” and “which?” in the presence of establishing and abolishing operations. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 47(1), 136-150
Terry, Callie. A. (2015) Teaching children with Autism to vocally mand for others to perform an action, dissertation. December 2015: Denton, Texas
Landa, R. K., Hansen, B., & Alice Shillingsburg, M. (2017). Teaching mands for information using ‘when’ to children with autism. Journal of applied behavior analysis, 50(3), 538-551.
Axe, J.B., Phelan, S.H. & Irwin, C.L. (2019). Empirical Evaluations of Skinner’s Analysis of Problem Solving. Analysis Verbal Behav 35, 39–56 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40616-018-0103-4
Cilia, F., Touchet, C., Vandromme, L., Driant, B.l. (2020) Initiation and response of joint attention bids in autism spectrum disorder children depending on the visibility of the target. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments. January 2020.
Meleshkevich, O., Axe, J. B., & Espinosa, F. D. (2021). Effects of time delay and requiring echoics on answering questions about visual stimuli. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 54(2), 725-743. Chicago
Teaching Intraverbal Behavior to children with Autism- Mark Sundberg, National Autism Conference, Penn State: 2016
Early Social Responding and Verbal Behavior: An Analysis of Current Applications- Francesca Espinoza, Annual lecture at the National Autism Conference, Penn State: 2018
Advanced Verbal Behavior- Dr. Vincent Carbone, Annual lecture at the National Autism Conference, Penn State: 2018
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