Verbal Behavior:
A Review of Verbal
Developmental Capabilities
from Listener to Speaker
Kathy Matthews, Ph.D., LBA, BCBA-D
Faison School and Centers of Excellence
Richmond, Virginia
kmatthews@thefaisonschool.org
Goals
• To describe verbal behavior
• To describe verbal developmental capabilities
• To describe the “Listener”
• To describe the “Speaker”
Outcomes
• Audience will acquire an overview of information
related to verbal behavior, verbal developmental
capabilities, and listener and speaker repertoires
References
• Skinner’s (1957) Verbal Behavior
• Greer’s (2008) Verbal Behavior Analysis
All of the information in this presentation is taken
directly from Skinner and Greer’s texts including
verbatim quotes, examples and explanations. If you
need a particular citation, page number, etc. please
contact me via email for that information.
What is Verbal Behavior?
• A functional account of communication during
which instances of verbalizations, vocal or
otherwise, are identified by their effect on a listener.
• Key Components:
• Verbal Communities
• Mediation
(Skinner, 1957)
Direct contact with an immediate world does
not teacher a person to behave verbally
• Language, verbal practices and the conditions that
give them meaning, requires a culture…something
we call a “verbal community”.
• The presence of verbal communities indicates that
human beings may be predisposed to behave
verbally. But a predisposition to behave does not
insure that the behavior will occur, and its
occurrence, if it occurs, does not explain how forms
of that behavior are shaped by an extant community.
(Skinner, 1957)
Verbal Community
• The constant complaints over illiteracy and the
failure to achieve prescribed standards of verbal
behavior make evident that verbal behavior, this
most human of human actions, is not genetically
prescribed to occur properly.
• Effective speech requires more than biological
predisposition and anatomical tools. A verbal
repertoire grows up in a social world.
(Skinner, 1957)
We “speak” within a verbal
community
• We need others in order to be “verbal”
• We must consider phylogenetic factors such as
nervous system, vocal musculature and and the
affinity to socialize in how verbal behavior develops
• (Skinner, 1957)
Early Example From Skinner
(1957)
• Instead of going to a drinking fountain, a thirsty man may
simply “ask for a glass of water” that is, may engage in
behavior which produces a certain pattern of sounds which
in turn induces someone to bring him a glass of water. The
sounds themselves are easy to describe in physical terms:
but the glass of water reaches the speaker only as the result
of a complex series of events including the behavior of a
listener. The ultimate consequence, the receipt of water,
bears no useful geometrical or mechanical relation to the
form of the behavior of “asking for water.”
Why Traditional Explanations
Don’t Work
• When analyzing language linguistically, often one
gets into a cycle of explaining meanings and ideas
through the use of other words and restatements of
definitions.
• This faulty idea suggests that speech has an
independent existence apart from the behavior of the
speaker. Example: We have no more reason to say
that a man uses the word water in asking for a drink
than to say that he uses a reach in taking the offered
glass.
(Skinner, 1957)
What Verbal Behavior Offers
• Our first responsibility is simple description: what is
the topograhpy of this subdividision of human
behavior? Once that question has been answered in
at least a preliminary fashion we may advance to the
stage called explanation: what conditions are
relevant to the occurrence of the behavior-what are
the variables of which it is a function?
(Skinner, 1957)
Simply Stated…
• Verbal Behavior is a functional account of language.
It requires speakers and listeners. It also requires
speakers to function as listeners and for listeners to
function as speakers.
Now…
• Now that we understand the functional focus of
language and its relationship to the environment, we
can set up contingencies accordingly. We can teach
language.
What is considered verbal?
• Verbal behavior is behavior reinforced through the
mediation of other persons.
• We do not and cannot specify any one form, mode
or medium. Any movement capable of affecting
another organism may be verbal.
(Skinner, 1957)
Speakers and Listeners
• Individuals can have a speaker repertoire AND a
listener repertoire AND they can function as
listeners and speakers at the same time.
• We often develop these repertoires separately,
however they can and need to be joined to evoke a
higher level of verbal behavior.
What are some forms of
verbal behavior?
• Vocal
• Transcription
• Written
• Typed
• Sign
Speaker
• Verbal Operants (Skinner, 1957):
• Echoic
• An echoic repertoire is established in the child through “educational”
reinforcement because it is useful to parents, teachers, and others.
• Mands
• A response of a given form is characteristically followed by a given
consequence in a verbal community.
• Tacts
• A response of a given form is evoked (or at least strengthened) by a
particular object or event (that response is characteristically reinforced
by a verbal community).
Mands and Tacts Simply Put
• Mands specify their reinforcer
• Tacts result in social reinforcement
Verbal Operants Continued
• Textual Behavior
• A speaker under the control of a text is a reader.
• Intraverbal Behavior
• Verbal behavior under the control of other verbal
behavior.
• Conversational Units
• When a speaker and listener alternate as a speaker and
listener for several verbal exchanges.
(Skinner, 1957)
Now that we know some
verbal operants, how can we
teach them and where do you
start?
Greer’s Verbal Developmental
Pyramid
• Moves from early attending responses to more
developed listener and speaker repertoires.
• Suggestion is to focus on early mands and tacts.
Even with approximations, these early behaviors will
help individuals learn to manipulate the
environment through mands to get their needs met
and also learn to develop social interests by
recruiting social attention through the tact.
(Greer, 2008)
Early Speaker Capabilities
• To acquire mands and tacts, an echoic-to-mand and
echoic-to-tact teaching sequencing is recommended.
• A target form is selected and the echoics are used to
teach the function and transition quickly to an
independent mand or tact.
Echoic to Mand Sequence
(Greer, 2008)
1.
Identify the form/approximation for the targeted mand.
2.
Show the individual the target and provide the established echoic form
(from step 1). So teacher says (echoic) and then individual repeats (echoic).
3.
If the individual repeats the echoic correctly, immediately give him the
target.
4.
Continue steps 2 and 3 until you have 3 consecutively correct echoics.
5.
Identify another preferred item/activity and offer this alongside the target.
Present both and if the individual mands for the target item, give access
immediately. If errors occur, go back to the echoic procedure.
6.
Continue going back and forth on this sequence until mastery criterion is
reached for the mand.
Echoic to Tact Sequence
(Greer, 2008)
1.
Identify the form/approximation for the targeted tact.
2.
Show the individual the target and provide the established echoic form
(from step 1). So teacher says (echoic) and then individual repeats
(echoic).
3.
If the individual repeats the echoic correctly, immediately provide social
praise (may need tangibles at first but fade out quickly).
4.
Continue steps 2 and 3 until you have 3 consecutively correct echoics.
5.
After the 3 consecutive echoics, go to the independent tact instruction
but make sure to intersperse with other stimuli.
6.
If errors occur, go back to the echoic procedure.
7.
Continue going back and forth on this sequence until mastery criterion
is reached for the tact.
Advanced Speaker
Capabilities
• Since social interactions and social interests are
critical for individuals with ASD, it is important to
focus on speaker programs that evoke social
attention.
• Speaker Immersion
• Intensive Tact Instruction and Conversational Units
are some examples.
(Greer, 2008)
Intensive Tact Instruction
• Focused on fluent tacting across multiple categories
with the aim of conducting 100 tacts per day.
• Probes are conducted in natural settings to
determine if verbal operants are increasing.
(Greer, 2008)
• Video Clip
Early Listener Capabilities
• Greer (2008)
• The listener is key in establishing new behavior and in developing
an individual as a member of their community…not as a “taker”
from his community.
• First and foremost step is to ensure that the individual comes
under the control of others in his environment. You can probe this
by assessing whether the individual makes eye contact when
someone calls his name, sits next to him, walks in the room, etc.
• If the individual is not attending to others, you can focus on
pairing reinforcement with other individuals to establish this initial
behavior.
Listener Continued
• Some examples of pairing include voice and face
conditioning protocols.
• Conditioning tactics consist of identifying a target
behavior and pairing the occurrence of that behavior
with a known reinforcer. You may also need to
prompt and evoke the target behavior during this
experience.
(Greer, 2008)
Face and Voice Conditioning
• Face and Voice Conditioning help to establish
looking at others and attending to voices as
reinforcers.
• Voice conditioning is a method of pairing the sound
of familiar voices (such as a recorded sample of a
parent reading a book) with reinforcement.
• Probes are conducted before, during and after the
procedure to assess progress toward early attending
behaviors.
(Greer, 2008)
Face Conditioning Sample
• Video
Advanced Listener
Capabilities
• Once early attending behaviors are established
(attending to others), individuals can begin to
acquire basic listener literacy and begin to learn to
imitate, follow 1-3 step directions, attend to name,
etc.
• Listener Literacy can be checked by having these
directions recorded so that the visual stimuli are
absent (ensures he can only LISTEN).
(Greer, 2008)
Advanced Listener
Capabilities Continued
• Once basic listener literacy is established, the
following tactics may help develop more advanced
listening:
• 2D and 3D Conditioning
• Auditory Matching
• Listener Immersion
(Greer, 2008)
Auditory Matching
• Video Clip
Speaker as Own Listener
• The key to advanced verbal behavior is the joining of the
speaker and listener:
• Naming
• The capacity to acquire a tact and a listener response by simply
hearing another person tact a stimulus. This is the capacity to
respond as a speaker and listener without direct instruction.
• Self-Editing
• Ability to function as your own listener/reader without needing
immediate feedback (anticipating the feedback of your
audience instead).
(Greer, 2008)
Summary
• Focusing on listener and speaker responses is key.
• Establishing fluency in the early speaker and listener
repertoires is key to advancing forward.
• NOT focusing on developing these early on means
you will create dependency with prompts.
• New technology and research are showing us that
we can help teach individuals to learn on their own
by establishing these early abilities.
Thank you!
• kmatthews@thefaisonschool.org