Designing effective programmes
for verbal development
Verbal Behaviour
Skinner (1957) defined verbal behaviour as
“behavior reinforced through the mediation
of other persons…Any behavior capable of
affecting another organism may be verbal” (p.2)
Typical 3 year old children emit around 20,000 words
per day
(Sundberg & Partington, 1997)
Verbal Behaviour
Skinner proposed that language is behaviour that is
primarily influenced by environmental variables such
as reinforcement, motivation, extinction and
punishment.
This view of language differs substantially from other
views that assume language is primarily caused by
cognitive or biological variables (Piaget, 1926; Pinker,
1994)
Behavioural Approach to Language
Language is analysed by its formal and functional
properties (Catania, 1974)
Formal properties: physical description or specific
response topographies or classes of responses (e.g.
nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns). Includes syntax
and adherence to grammatical conventions
Behavioural Approach to Language
Functional properties also include the circumstances
under which responses occur i.e. an analysis of the
discriminative stimuli, motivational operations, and
consequences that control a response or class of
responses
Formal properties: articulation, intonation, pitch,
emphasis etc
Behavioural Approach to Language
In Skinner’s analysis of verbal behaviour he
distinguished between different types of functional
control of verbal operants. This allows for
identification of these functionally different types of
language:
Behavioural Approach to Language
Mand: From Demand a verbal behaviour where the
speaker asks for what he wants (in a pure mand, the
object is not present)
Tact: A verbal operant where the response is controlled
by a prior nonverbal stimulus. i.e. see a chair and say
“chair”. It is a labelling or naming behaviour. (Happens
in the presence of the stimulus)
Echoic/Mimetic: Imitative repertoire – the stimulus is
auditory/visual and the response is an identical
auditory/visual
Behavioural Approach to Language
Receptive: Non verbally responding to the language of
others
RFFC: Receptive understanding by Feature, Function or
Class – touch a dog when asked “which one barks?”
Intraverbal: A type of verbal stimulus that lacks pointto-point correspondence to the response (the
stimulus and response don’t match)
Textual: A vocal response is controlled by a written
stimulus
Teaching Meaning
Mand
dog
Tact
Echoic/Mimetic
Intraverbal
Receptive
RFFC
Textual
Language Based Environment
• Language must be viewed as the focus of programme
• Language must be used in all other activities
• Large number of trials in a variety of conditions and
under different motivational conditions must be
arranged
• Tutors need to know when to reinforce and how to
fade out any artificial quality of programme
• Tutors need to maximise opportunities to respond
verbally
Establishing Rapport
• Pair the presence of the tutor with delivery of
reinforcement
• Compile list of reinforcers
• Compile list of ways to provide access to other
reinforcing events (push a swing)
• Do not interrupt fun activity to take the child to a
work situation
Requiring the first response
• Consider Time and Effort
• Ideally, by learning to co-operate with the tutor, the
student should be able to get access to a wider
variety of reinforcers and better reinforcers for less
effort (i.e. complying with an instruction rather than
engaging in another, possibly disruptive, behaviour)
Requiring the first response
• Ideal teaching situation involves tutor having an item
that is reinforcing at that exact moment
– This item is only available through tutor at that
point in time
– The child must do something that is specified by
the instructor to access the reinforcer
– Go slowly in establishing instructional control
Motivational Operation
Any event or stimulus condition that momentarily alters:
• the reinforcing effectiveness of other events
• the frequency of behaviours relevant to those events
as consequences
Skinner on Motivation
“a person who needs or wants food is particularly likely
to be reinforced by food and …is particularly likely to
engage in behavior which has been previously
reinforced by food” (Skinner, 1974, p55)
“a person under aversive control is particularly likely to
be reinforced if he escapes and to engage in behavior
which has led to escape” (p55)
Indicators of Success
• Child comes readily to tutor
• Reinforcing relationship formed
• Move on to Mand training as soon as possible after
positive relationship is developed
Contriving Motivational Operations
Give the child a bowl of ice cream without a spoon
Give the child a glass without liquid in it
Give the child a cassette player with no tape in it
Give the child a colouring book but no crayon
Put the child on the swing but don’t push
Bring the child to the computer but don’t turn it on
Give the child a Tupperware container with a reinforcer
in it
Play a game but stop abruptly….
Beginning Language Training
Mand: request for something that is reinforcing
Mands directly benefit the speaker
All children get hungry, need attention,
want items, need things removed, want
TV turned on etc.
Can we capture this motivation (Motivational
Operation) and use in language training?
Focus on Motivation
There are several variables that will increase
the chances of successfully teaching a child
to mand:
– Strong forms of reinforcement
– A variety of prompts
– Systematic fading of prompts
– Choose appropriate form of response
Focus on Motivation
There are several variables that will increase
the chances of successfully teaching a child
to mand:
– Strong forms of reinforcement
– A variety of prompts
– Systematic fading of prompts
– Choose appropriate form of response
Is modality the key?
“In defining verbal behavior as behavior reinforced
through the mediation of other persons, we do not, and
cannot, specify one form, mode, or medium” (p. 14)
First Words
1.
2.
Select words for reinforcers that can be easily
controlled:
• Consumables
• Short duration reinforcers
• Reinforcers that are easily removed
• Reinforcers that are easily delivered
• Reinforcers that can be delivered on multiple
occasions
Select words that the child already has in their
receptive, echoic, or imitative repertoires
First Words
3.
4.
5.
6.
Select words/pictures/signs that relevant to the
child in his daily life
Select words for a variety of different categories
(e.g., food, toys, video, music, play)
Avoid similar sounding words
Avoid words with negative history (e.g., bed, toilet,
no)
Procedure
•
•
•
Instructor should hold up food item and say
• What do you want? And/or
• Say “Eat”
If child emits approximation to “eat” reinforce
If child fails to respond represent item
• Bring in different potential reinforcing items
• Try different response mode
• Work on compliance
Fade out Echoic
Training for manding begins in this phase.
Fade out echoic by:
• Use a time delay procedure (delay between
verbal instruction and prompt)
• Partial prompting
The objective is to get child to say “eat”
without delivering the echoic prompt
Curriculum Development
•
Manding
•
Imitation
•
Receptive skills
•
Matching to Sample skills
Trial Sequence
All areas should be presented in a mixed
order to maintain interest. This is called
Mixed Verbal Behaviour or Mixed VB
Sequence
Mand trial
“Do this” [while clapping]
Mand trial
“Say Dog”, “Touch Nose”
“Say Cup”, “Do this [touch head]”, “Match
Mand trial
Green”
Vocal Imitation
Objective:
To get the child to emit a specific sound
on request
Tips:
Use commonly heard sounds
Pair adult vocalisations with reinforcers
Mix in with other trials
Receptive Language
Objective:
To teach child to respond to the language
of others
Basic instructions:
Get coat
Give me ________
Come here
Stand up
Sit down
Go to _________
Touch ________
Point to ________
Use errorless learning – do not let child get trial wrong
Matching to sample
Objective:
To develop instructional control and to develop
awareness of the environment.
Child should be taught to match:
• Object-ObjectPicture – Picture
• Object – Picture
Picture – Object
• Colour - Colour Picture – Non identical picture
• Letter – Letter
Letters – Words
• Words - Pictures
Matching to sample
Matching non identical pictures
Matching to word to picture
dog
Matching letters to words
a
c
t
cat
Summary
Children should be able to engage in the
following mixed tasks before proceeding:
•
•
•
•
•
Mand for reinforcers
Imitate some actions
Echo some sounds and words
Follow a number of commands
Match items
Trials should be mixed VB to teach the child
that work is necessary before manding is
appropriate
Developing the Language Programme:
Tacts & Receptive Skills
Prerequisite:
Children have either some echoic skills or some imitative
skills
Tact:
The ability to verbally label items or actions in the
environment
Tacts & Receptive responses may be taught at the same
time for each new word.
Problem
We want to teach child to name things
regardless of being motivated for the
objects.
Objective:
Fade out delivery of specific item (in this
case car). The child must learn to name
things without expecting to receive the item.
Usual Sequence
•
•
•
•
Tact objects in the environment
Tact verbs
Tact actions of objects
Tact properties of objects
– Include properties with actions and object
• Tact prepositions, Pronouns
• Tact sensory input (e.g. smell, hear)
• Tact private events
Using Mixed Trials
Using a mixed trial format, we can more easily
approximate the pace and interaction style of
conversational exchange… conversations do not
typically involve repeated presentations of the same
type of question e.g. what is this? What is this?
What is this? etc
Using Mixed Trials
With some learners, we may find that presenting
instructions in a mixed format helps to keep
attention. The learner can’t anticipate what type of
trial will come next and so must pay closer attention
to the tutor
Using Mixed Trials
Learners get opportunities to be both speakers and
listeners when using a mixed trial format. It is
important to programme for this kind of initiation,
rather than hoping that it will happen naturally c.f.
communication groups
Data collection
A general rule for data collection is that trials should be
performed in sets of fives – corrects and incorrects
are written down at the conclusion of the trial
sequence on a “Mixed Trial Data Sheet”
Mixed Trial Data Sheet
Movement
Mon
Tue
Wed Thurs
Fri
Ensure that the Sd is unpredictable
Take, for example, a learner who is doing trials
composed of:
See/do GMI (clap hands, touch head, arms out)
See/say common object (cup, keys, doll)
Hear/give common object (as above)
The data sheet could look like this:
Ensure that the Sd is unpredictable
Take, for example, a learner who is doing trials
composed of:
See/do GMI (clap hands, touch head, arms out)
See/say common object (cup, keys, doll)
Hear/give common object (as above)
The data sheet could look like this:
Ensure that the Sd is unpredictable
Movement
GMI
S/s
H/g
S/s
H/g
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thurs
Fri
Ensure that the Sd is unpredictable
•
•
•
The data sheet titles will be designed by the
supervisor
The individual movements will be written in by the
tutors daily, ensuring that they change every day
In this way, there is no chance of sequencing of
instructions…so a possible set of two trial sequences
could look like this:
Ensure that the Sd is unpredictable
Movement
Clap hands
S/s cup
H/g keys
S/s doll
H/g cup
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thurs
Fri
Ensure that the Sd is unpredictable
Movement
S/s keys
Touch head
H/g doll
Arms out
H/g keys
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thurs
Fri
Charting Mixed Trials
•
•
Charting is on a Daily per day chart, with the
number of opportunities of each set of trials being
decided by the supervisor
Unless otherwise specified by a supervisor, each
individual task in the mixed trial set should also
have rate data taken
Practical exercises
•
•
•
Break up into groups of twos
Take turns to be the instructor and the student
Materials are available from the Workshop
Facilitators
Exercise one:
Teaching the following trial elements:
See/match common items: (cup, apple, hat)
See/do GMI: (clap hands, touch nose, arms up)
Hear/give common items: (cup, apple, hat)
Student mands vocally
Exercise two:
Teaching the following trial elements:
Hear /say phonic sounds: (a as in mat, m as in man, ee as
in eat)
Hear/do motor movements: (clap hands, touch nose,
stamp feet, touch tummy)
Hear/give common items: (cup, apple, hat, toothbrush,
shoe)
Student mands vocally
Teaching conversation skills
• Why teach conversational skills? Conversations are
the way in which people find out about their
immediate world.
• We can request information about people, things,
places, - express our needs and wants, – and pass on
information about ourselves and things that are
important to us.
• Children with language delays often do not obtain
conversation skills naturally.
Teaching conversation skills
• Why teach conversational skills? Conversations are
the way in which people find out about their
immediate world.
• We can request information about people, things,
places, - express our needs and wants, – and pass on
information about ourselves and things that are
important to us.
• Children with language delays often do not obtain
conversation skills naturally.
Teaching conversation skills
Skinner used the term Intraverbal behaviour to refer
to the behaviours that occur when someone can
appropriately respond to the verbal behaviour of
another person without just echoing or merely
following the instruction.
Social interactions and conversations primarily involve
intraverbal behaviour.
Once our learner has demonstrated some of the
component skills we have talked about, our aim is to
develop a conversational repertoire for the learner.
Teaching conversation skills
 The skills involved in being able to have a conversation
are many of the skills we have talked about so far.
 A conversation between 2 people may consist of
labelling things or events (tacting), requesting
something (manding), following instructions
(receptive) and imitating something the other person
has said (echoic).
Teaching Conversation skills
 Once a child has is able to mand for different
reinforcers, is able to tact a range of objects, people
and colours etc (a combination of 50 or more) and is
beginning RFFC activities, we can begin to shape up
simple conversation through teaching intraverbals.
Teaching Conversation skills
• Using a fill-in-the-blank strategy around something
the child finds reinforcing is often a good starting
point.
• While singing a song together leave out a key word
(one that you know the child has the ability to make
even a good approximation of)
• “Old Mac Donald had a ----, ee-ay, ee-ay -----”
Teaching conversation skills
• In the beginning use visual prompts
“and on that
he had a
• Begin expecting the child to fill in more and more
blanks.
• Fade out prompts
• Do this activity with different songs, different
people and in different locations to help generalise
the skill
• When the child is able to match items by association,
begin teaching word associations.
• Use an activity sheet and visual supports in the
beginning.
Teacher shows a picture and asks the child to tact it.
Teacher writes down the word, then asks
“What goes with a pencil?” –
Word Association Activity
“What goes with a
Pencil ?
Word Association Activity
“What goes with a
Pencil ?
Paper
Teacher then asks
“They go together because?”
And prompts the child to say
“pencil writes on paper”
The task can be expanded using different items where
concepts such as feature, function, class, colour,
sound are being taught.
Teaching conversation skills
• Commenting on what is going on around them is one
aspect of conversation many children with Autism
find difficult.
• To shape up the ability to comment, begin by teaching
the child to tact objects at the desk
• Expand this skill by placing those objects around the
room and teach them to tact as you point
• The same skill can be demonstrated with people,
animals and favourite t.v. characters
Teaching conversation skills
• When tacting is fluent, expand this skill even further
by teaching the child to use the carrier phrase “I
see”.
• Again, use full and partial verbal and visual prompts
to help in the early stages.
Teaching conversation skills
• “Barney!” becomes
• “see Barney!” becomes ,
• “I see Barney” when you point to him and hold up an “I
see” icon
I see
Teaching conversation skills
• This activity can be even further expanded by asking
the child
“tell me some things you see in the room?”
“ I see Barney, I see Bob, I see ball and I see shoes.”
• Begin by using a point prompt if necessary and fade
this out as responding becomes more fluent
Teaching conversation skills
• The same procedure can be used using the child’s
favourite videos.
• Teach the child to tact the characters using the
paused video or flashcards - “who do you see?”.
• Expand the response by introducing the “I see”
carrier phrase.
• Then develop conversations while watching the video
together.
• While watching the video with your child, press pause
while known characters are on the screen and ask –
“Who do you see?” – “I see Milo”. Continue watching
and pause when another character appears.
• Expand this by pausing when several characters are
present –
“Who do you see?” – “I see Bella”
“ Well done, who else do you see?”
• As the child learns to label colours, actions, features
etc, use questions to give more opportunities to
respond “Who do you see?” – “ I see Fizz”
“ What is she doing?” – “reading”
“That’s right, what colour is her dress?”
“red”. (start video again) “Who do you see now?...
• The same teaching procedure can be used to shape up
commenting about familiar people or things.
• Record contrived situations (Mum and brother playing
on the swing set), watch the video together and use
the same pause/question procedure –
Teaching conversation skills
“Who can you see?”- “ I see Mummy and Paul” – “ What
are we doing?” – “Paul is swinging” –” “What is Mummy
doing?” – “Pushing”- “Well done, What colour is the
slide?” – “yellow” – “Great! What is Paul wearing?”“shorts”- “What else is he wearing?” -“A hat” –
“Fantastic, you are so clever, lets watch some more”
Teaching conversation skills
 Expand & generalise conversation further by using
the same procedure around real life play activities
 Whilst playing with trains ask –
“What colour is this train?” – “Green”
“What sounds does a train make?” “Whoo Whoo”
“Who drives the train?” – “The Train Driver”
“How many carriages are on the train?”- “ Two”
“Where will the train stop?” – “At the station”
Teaching conversation skills
• Generalise commenting skills into all settings in the
natural environment
• Ask Wh. Questions while travelling in the car
• Whilst out for a walk or in the park or shops
• About favourite t.v. programmes
• Whilst setting the table or getting ready for bed.
Teaching conversation skills
• To make commenting more spontaneous begin to fade
out direct questions when the child can readily
answer them.
• Use a partial question and wait for a reply “What…?”
“Who…?”
• Gesture towards objects rather than asking about
them
• Use excited/expectant facial expressions
Teaching conversation skills
• Listening and replying to another person’s verbal
behaviour is only part of having a conversation
• Children with Autism and language delay often do not
readily initiate conversation
• Using structured templates can help teach children
how to initiate and maintain a conversation
Teaching conversation skills
• Structuring topical conversations develops the child’s
ability to talk about a topic for extended periods of
time.
• This exercise teaches the child the basic structure
of conversation in which they choose a topic they
know something about and ask and answer questions
about it
Topical Conversation Activity
Topic:
_____________
(what do you want
to talk about?)
Christmas
1)___________
2)___________
3)___________
4)___________
cars
Teaching conversation skills
• Using this template, Teacher says“What do you want to talk about?” and assists the
child to name the topic by choosing from the
pictures below.
Teacher then writes the topic on the first line of the
page and places pictures on the bottom of the
structure sheet
• Teacher then asks
“what can we see at the Zoo?”
and allows the child to label some things
by choosing from the pictures on the
board
Topical Conversation Activity
Topic:
The zoo
(what do you want
to talk about?)
1)___________
2)___________
3)___________
4)___________
• The child should be able to label at least 4 things you
might see or do
• As they select items, the teacher should stick the
picture and write the word on the line on the
structure sheet
Topical Conversation Activity
Topic:
The Zoo
(what do you want
to talk about)
1) Lions & Tigers
2) Monkeys
3) Snakes
4) Ice-cream
• When at least 4 items have been chosen, the
sheet can be used to guide the conversation –
“Tell me some things you see at the Zoo?”
” Lions and Tigers”
“What do tigers have on their fur?”
“They have stripes”
“Can you think of anything else you see at the zoo?”
“Snakes”
“Yes! What colour are the snakes?”
“Green”
“What is your favourite thing about the zoo?”
“The monkeys”
”What do the monkeys like to eat?”
“bananas”
“What do you like to eat when we go to the zoo?”
“Ice-cream”
The conversation continues until all the items on the
sheet have been included. The then teacher
re-verbalises the conversation.
“When we go to the zoo we see lions and tigers. The
tigers have stripes on their fur. We see snakes. Some
of them are green. We see monkeys too. They like to
eat bananas. We like to eat ice-cream at the zoo.”
• The child is then allowed to practice reverbalising the
topic using the sheet as a prompt.
• Once this becomes fluent, practice the conversation
without the sheet.
• As the child becomes more fluent, the range of topics
can be increased.
• Eventually the picture prompts can be faded
Workshop activity
• Pair up with a partner and use the
topical conversation sheet and visuals to
role play teaching conversation with
your learner.
• Move through teaching each item to be
talked about, to asking wh. Questions
• Practice the conversation with your
learner without the sheet once it
becomes fluent.
• To expand skills by teaching the child to start and
maintain the conversation, use a combination of the
activity sheet and question cue cards. The
prerequisite skills include being able to use the
topical conversation activity sheet and reading skills.
Teacher begins by saying “ask me about my day”
Child –”what did you do today?”
Teacher (chooses an activity the child finds
reinforcing) “I went to the beach”
Topic
The beach
1) the sea
2) sand castles
3) picnic
4) lemonade
What did you do
today ?
What did you
see?
What did you
hear?
Who did you
play with?
What did you
eat?
What did you
drink?
Child (using a question card) “what did you do?”
Teacher “I made a sandcastle”
Child (using card) “What did you see?”
Teacher “I saw people swimming”
Child (using card) “What did you eat”
Teacher “ I ate a sandwich”
Child (using card) “ What did you drink”
Teacher “ I drank orange juice”
Workshop Activity
Role play teaching a topical conversation
with your learner, using the question
cards