The Verbal Behavior Milestones
Assessment and Placement
Program
(VB-MAPP)
Parents Of Autistic Children of Northern Virginia
(POAC-NoVA)
Melissa Modarressi, M.Ed.
Theodore A. Hoch, Ed.D., B.C.B.A.
With tremendous thanks to
Dr. Mark Sundberg!
for writing the vast
(really – vast!)
majority of what you’ll
see and hear today!
Overview of Today’s Session
Introductions
Brief History
Current State of VB Assessment and
Instruction
The VB-MAPP – Where it came from
The VB-MAPP – How to do it
The VB-MAPP – How to figure out what to do
The VB-MAPP – How to evaluate
Conclusions
Introductions
Melissa
Ted
Disclaimer
www.avbpress.com
www.marksundberg.com
Brief History
Through the millenia …
Sechenov, Pavlov, Watson, and others
Black box psychologists
Skinner, and the influence of consequences
Application to thinking, reading, writing,
speaking, etc.
WW-II
Verbal Behavior
Applications to people with psychiatric or
developmental disabilities
Continued conceptual and experimental work
Application to people with autism
Controversies and Disagreements
General misunderstanding of ABA, and its
range of applications
Facilitated communication
Selection-based v. Topography-based
systems
Educational personnel preparation
Home v. school programming
ITT v. NET
“But if I teach him to sign, he won’t learn to
speak”
Form versus function
Current State of VB Assessment
Traditional assessment by an SLP
Standardized tests (e.g., PPVT, EVT,
Brigance, Vineland Adaptive Behavior
Scales, etc.)
Behavioral Language Assessment
ABLLS-R
VB-MAPP
Functional Nomenclature
Mand
Motor imitation
Vocal Imitation
Tact
Textual
Echoic
LRFFC
Transcriptive
Matching to
Intraverbal
sample
Speaker’s repertoire Verbal behavior
Listener’s repertoire
Autoclitic
What is it?
Antecedent
Fire in the
fireplace
Your behavior
“Fire”
Consequence
“Yep”
“Ready, aim”
“Fire”
???
Fire on the stove “Fire”
while you’re
cooking
Someone rushes
in to help
What is it?
Antecedent
FIRE written on
board
Your behavior
“Fire”
Consequence
????
Smell of smoke
“Fire”
???
I say “fire”
“Fire”
“yep”
It’s hot, orange,
and burns
“Fire”
“That’s the word”
So, verbal behavior’s not
about teaching words?
Not so much …
Back to that VB-MAPP –
Where did it come from?
History described earlier
Evolution helped along by numerous
behavior analysts (and even SLPs)
Field tested on NT kids and kids with
autism and other disabilities
Normed against other instruments
How does VB-MAPP compare
with other assessments?
Functional
Formative and summative
Criterion and norm referenced
Assesses verbal repertoires
Those way cool Barriers and Transitions
Assessments, and that IEP Guide
VB-MAPP –
Who can administer it?
VB-MAPP –
Who should administer it?
“In order to conduct this language
assessment it is essential that the the
tester have a basic understanding of
behavior analysis, Skinner’s (1957)
analysis of verbal behavior, and the
components of linguistic structure”
Sundberg (2008), p. 16
VB-MAPP –
Section by Section
VB-MAPP Skills Assessment
Skills assessed on the VB-MAPP include:
Elementary verbal operants
Listener skills
Vocal output
Independent play
Social skills and social play
Visual perceptual skills and matching-to-sample
Grammatical and syntactical skills
Group and classroom skills
Beginning academic skills
VB-MAPP Skills Assessment
Milestones in three developmental levels
Level 1: 0-18 months
Level 2: 18-30 months
Level 3: 30-48 months
Scores balanced across each level
Five items and five possible points for each skill area
Three boxes in all sections for separate administrations
Each item scored 0, 1, or ½
Look for the operant level; If the skill is below operant
level score quickly and move on; if it is close to the
operant level, test it
VB-MAPP Level 1: Tact
VB-MAPP Skills Assessment
Total for the five items is marked on the top of each
skill area
Totals for each skill area are added for all three levels
and placed on the VB-MAPP Scoring Form
Total score on the Echoic sub-test is converted to a
milestone score on the VB-MAPP form
Specific items on the VB-MAPP have been adjusted
many times based on the field-test data (See VB-MAPP
Assessment Forms)
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Important to find out what a child can do (The VB-MAPP
Skills Assessment), but also what she can’t, and why
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment designed to identify and
score 22 different learning and language acquisition
barriers
Once a barrier is identified, a more detailed descriptive
and/or functional analysis is required
Many ways for a verbal repertoire or related skill to
become defective so individualized analysis needed to
determine what the nature of the problem is for a specific
child, and what intervention program might be
appropriate
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Defective Verbal Behavior
Descriptive functional analysis of verbal behavior
Behavioral analysis of words, phrases, and sentences
emitted by children with autism
Same basic principles of behavior as nonverbal behavior
What is the source of control?
Sources of control often reveal that what appears to be a
correct response in form is actually incorrect in function
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Defective Verbal Behavior
Might not be the same source of control observed in a
typically developing child (e.g., I have a red shirt on)
Each verbal operant can be susceptible to unwanted
sources of control
Defective mands (I want candy. What’s that?)
Defective tacts (Bounce ball, Black car, Under table)
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common Learning and Language Acquisition Barriers
Instructional control (Escape/avoidance)
Behavior problems
Defective mand
Defective tact
Defective motor imitation
Defective echoic (e.g., echolalia)
Defective matching-to-sample
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common Learning and Language Acquisition Barriers
Defective listener repertoires (e.g., LD, LRFFC)
Defective intraverbal
Defective play and social skills
Prompt dependent, long latencies
Scrolling responses
Defective scanning skills
Failure to make conditional discriminations
Failure to generalize
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common Learning and Language Acquisition Barriers
Weak or atypical MOs
Response requirements weakens the MO
Self-stimulation
Articulation problems
Obsessive-compulsive behavior
Reinforcement dependent
Does not attend to people/materials
Defective social behavior
Scoring the VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Rate the child on the VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment Form
using a Likert-type scale of 1 to 5
1 or 2 = no significant barriers, and formal intervention
plan may not be required.
3, 4, or 5 = barrier(s) present, that probably should be
addressed as part of the intervention program
For some, immediate focus of intervention is on
removing a particular barrier, rather than language
instruction
Most common immediate barriers to remove involve
instructional control problems, or other behavior
problems
VB-MAPPS for
Typically Developing Children
Lisa Hale
Mark L. Sundberg
Rikki Roden
Carl T. Sundberg
Cindy A. Sundberg
VB-MAPPs for
Children with Autism
Mark L. Sundberg
Carl T. Sundberg
Shannon Rosenhan
Shannon Montano
Kaisa Weathers
VB MAPP Skills Task Analysis
Milestones can be considered floors in a building, and
the task analysis contains the steps between each floor
170 milestones and approximately 1000 total tasks in
the VB-MAPP task analysis
Task analysis form also allows for more detailed skills
tracking
Building a whole repertoire, not just individual skills
(e.g., mand, tact, M-T-S repertoires)
VB MAPP IEP Goals and Placement
Results of the VB-MAPP Skills and Barriers Assessment
provide guidance for developing an intervention
program
Specific IEP goals are provided for each milestone and
barrier
The assessment corresponds with the verbal behavior
intervention program (Sundberg & Partington, 1998;
Sundberg, in preparation)
VB-MAPP Transition Assessment
A common goal for many educators and parents of
children is to integrate the child into a mainstream setting
Many different levels of integration
Transition Assessment designed to identify skills that
increase probability a child will succeed in a less
restrictive setting
VB-MAPP Transition Assessment
No single skill will be a good determiner of success,
but a collective body of skills can help educators
and parents make decisions
VB-MAPP Transition Assessment helps determine if a
child has necessary prerequisite skills to learn in a
less restrictive classroom environment
There are 18 skill areas on the Transition Assessment
VB-MAPP Transition Assessment
Transition skills include:
Overall VB-MAPP
Skills score
Barrier behaviors
Group skills
Social skills
Independence
Classroom routines
Play skills
Toileting
Spontaneity
Reinforcers
Learning in the natural
environment
Generalization
Quick acquisition
Retention
Transfer skills
Self-care
Safety
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Analysis of a Defective Mand Repertoire
Many children with autism have
absent, weak, or defective mand repertoire
extensive tact and listener skills, as well as other
elevated scores on the VB-MAPP Skills assessment
Not uncommon for child to engage in tantrum or some
other problem behavior as a mand
Word learned under SD control may not automatically
transfer to MO control
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Analysis of a Defective Mand Repertoire
Distinction between SD and MO control not part of
many language assessment and intervention
programs designed for children with autism
Many potential causes of defective manding so
functional analysis needed to determine cause for
an individual child
The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Potential causes of absent, weak,
or defective mand repertoire
Mand training not part of child’s early language
training history
Target response form too difficult for the child
When a child has no or limited vocal behavior, sign
language or PECS has not been tried
High response requirement weakens the relevant MO
No current MO in effect for targeted item
The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Potential causes of absent, weak,
or defective mand repertoire
Response is prompt bound by physical, echoic,
imitative, or verbal stimuli
A nonverbal stimulus acquires control of the
response and blocks MO control
A verbal stimulus acquires control of the response
and blocks MO control
Motivation (MO) does not control the response form
The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Potential causes of absent, weak,
or defective mand repertoire
Single response topography functions as the mand
(e.g., more, please, that)
Can’t establish differential response topographies
Scrolling gets reinforced
Not enough mand trials are provided each day
Poor audience control
The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Potential causes of absent, weak,
or defective mand repertoire
Mands only required and reinforced in specific setting
Generalization training is not provided
Verbal information does not function as reinforcement
for the child
Manding does not come under control of natural
contingencies
History of punishment for attempts at manding
The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Analysis of a Defective Tact Repertoire
Tact less susceptible to becoming defective than mand or
intraverbal, due in part, to nature of tact’s controlling
variables
Nonverbal stimulus control more measurable and
accessible, in general, much clearer than motivational
control (mand), and verbal stimulus control (intraverbal)
Often the case that the wrong nonverbal stimulus acquires
control of a tact
For example, when teaching tacts related to verbs, the
goal is that the specific moving nonverbal stimulus evokes
a specific response, not the object related to the
movement
The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Analysis of a Defective Tact Repertoire
Some children learn to emit a word that is a verb in
form but not in function, as in the response Drinking
juice when just shown a cup, or Throwing ball when
shown a ball
Similar problems can be observed in efforts to teach
tacts related to prepositions and adjectives (e.g.,
Above and Below. Big and little)
Gone unchecked, these tacting errors can be
difficult to change and can become the source of
other verbal problems later in training, such as
intraverbal rote responding
The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of absent, weak, or defective tact
Limited amount of formal tact training has occurred
Other barriers such as instructional control dominate
the educational activities
Articulation is unintelligible, and augmentative
communication has not been tried
Tacting is prompt bound by echoic, imitative, or other
SDs (e.g., lip prompts)
The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of absent, weak, or defective tact
Scrolling through targeted tacts gets reinforced
Single response tacts have been over conditioned
Limited training with multiple SDs and multiple
response tacting
The wrong source of control is established (e.g.,
tacting verbs or emotions from pictures)
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of an absent, weak, or defective tact
Failure to analyze complexities of tacts involving
prepositions, pronouns, adjectives, private events,
social behavior, etc.
Verbal stimuli do not establish a feature of nonverbal
stimuli as an SD (IV/Tact combo)
Poorly sequenced curriculum
Generalization training is not provided (stimulus and
response classes)
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of an absent, weak, or defective tact
No spontaneous tacting due to additional prompts in
training (SD effect)
No spontaneous tacting due to aversive variables
present in training (MO-Reflexive)
Tacting not reinforced by natural or automatic
contingencies
The child has a punishment history for tacting
Excessive or inappropriate tacting gets reinforced
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
An Analysis of a Defective Intraverbal Repertoire
• Intraverbal behavior is most prone to becoming rote
Task of directly teaching intraverbal behavior is
complicated and endless
• Early intraverbal training pretty straight forward, but by 3-4
years of age, a typical child acquires 1000s of different
intraverbal relations
• Most adults have hundreds of thousands of different
intraverbal relations as a part of their verbal repertoires
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
An Analysis of a Defective Intraverbal Repertoire
Contact with these verbal stimuli can evoke
numerous intraverbal response
Number of different intraverbal relations far
outnumbers the number of different mands and
tacts. The frequency of mands may be greater than
intraverbals, but often the mands are related to a
relatively small set of MOs
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
An Analysis of a Defective Intraverbal Repertoire
Many children with autism have great difficulty acquiring
meaningful intraverbal behavior. Some have acquired
100s of tacts and LDs, but no more than a few simple
intraverbal relations
Tacting, imitation, echoic, matching, LDs, textual, and
transcriptive have degree of sameness that may come
easier for children with autism than intraverbal behavior
Not only are antecedents for these repertoires more
consistent and clearer, but also response is frequently the
same (A spoon is usually Spoon, 2 is always Two)
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
An Analysis of a Defective Intraverbal Repertoire
Intraverbal relations involve constantly changing
SDs and responses
For example, a tree is always a tree for echoic,
tacting, matching, etc., but discussion about trees
can be comprised of hundreds, if not thousands, of
different intraverbal relations
Furthermore, discussion about trees won’t occur
exactly the same way each time
However, this type of defective intraverbal behavior
not uncommon for some high functioning
individuals with autism, and especially those with
Aspergers
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
An Analysis of a Defective Intraverbal Repertoire
Verbal SDs usually much more complicated than the
nonverbal SDs; have multiple components, in brief
time frame
Multiple words as SDs almost always involves verbal
conditional discriminations
Vocal verbal stimuli are transitory, nonverbal stimuli
more static
Attending to verbal SDs often more laborious than to
nonverbal SDs
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
An Analysis of a Defective Intraverbal Repertoire
Visual stimuli may block the establishment of
control by verbal stimuli
Many words that are not clearly evoked by a
corresponding nonverbal stimulus (e.g., the, a,
can’t, usually, if, its, for, of, anyway, whatever) but
form the VCDs
is often shaped to include only the salient
information
IV responses typically more complex than tact
responses
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
An Analysis of a Defective Intraverbal Repertoire
The MLU of a tact tends to be much shorter than the
MLU for an intraverbal
There is often only so much that can be said about
a specific nonverbal stimulus (e.g., the tact bike vs,
IV story about a bike)
The tact response is often shaped to include only
the salient information
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of an absent, weak,
or defective intraverbal repertoire
Child has not received formal intraverbal training
Child is given training, but it’s to early to focus on
intraverbals
Child’s echoic repertoire is too strong (echolalia)
Nonverbal stimuli control response form (tact prompt
bound)
MOs control response forms (strong IVs on favorite
topics)
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of an absent, weak,
or defective intraverbal repertoire
Intraverbal curriculum is out of developmental and
behavioral sequence
Rote intraverbal responses have been firmly
established due to conditioning history
Out of context or irrelevant intraverbal training may
establish odd forms of IV behavior
Single verbal stimuli and single verbal responses
have been over conditioned
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of an absent, weak,
or defective intraverbal repertoire
Specific target responses are not in child’s repertoire as
tacts, LDs, or LRFFCs
Child doesn’t attend to multiple verbal stimuli (S-deltas)
Child does not have sufficient training on verbal
conditional discriminations
Verbal stimulus classes have not been established
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of an absent, weak,
or defective intraverbal repertoire
Verbal response classes have not been established
Poor audience control
No automatic reinforcement for IV behavior
A punishment history for intraverbal behavior
An extinction history for intraverbal behavior
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
An Analysis of a Defective Listener Repertoire
Listener’s behavior involves several independent
repertoires
Listener as audience for others’ verbal behavior
Listener’s nonverbal behavior evoked by others’ words
Listener’s covert verbal behavior evoked by others’
words (this part is actually speaker behavior, but
commonly and erroneously referred to as listener, or
receptive, behavior.
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common Causes of an Absent, Weak, or
Defective Listener Repertoire
Others’ speech doesn’t function as conditioned
reinforcer
Others’ speech doesn’t function as an SD for
attending
Child doesn’t reinforce others’ VB
Child doesn’t mediate reinforcement for others’ VB
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common Causes of an Absent, Weak, or
Defective Listener Repertoire
Child has not become an SD for certain verbal
behavior from others
Child has not received formal listener training
Scrolling get reinforced in listener training
Inadvertent prompts control correct responses (eye
gazes, position, hand placement)
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common Causes of an Absent, Weak,
or Defective Listener Repertoire
Child has a weak conditional discrimination repertoire
Verbal stimuli does not evoke scanning (or attending to
the array
Child has been over conditioned with limited array
Child has been over conditioned with single stimulus
and single response
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common Causes of an Absent, Weak,
or Defective Listener Repertoire
Generalization training has not provided (stimulus
and response classes
Child stims with the materials
No LRFFC training has been provided
The curriculum is poorly sequenced
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of absent, weak, or defective visual
perception and matching to sample repertoire
Child may have some type of vision impairment
Child has not received formal training on visual
discrimination tasks
Adults have poor instructional control
Child stims with materials
Targeted visual tasks are out of developmental
sequence (curriculum)
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of absent, weak, or defective visual
perception and matching to sample repertoire
Child is prompt bound by position, body movement,
eye or pointing prompts, etc.
There is a reinforcement history for position
preference, or specific response patterns
Scrolling behavior gets reinforced
A verbal consequence like No is really an SD to pick
another item
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of absent, weak, or defective
visual perception and matching-to-sample repertoire
If no reinforcement is provided for first selection, the
child quickly selects another item
There is a failure to scan visual arrays and comparisons
efficiently
There is a failure to make conditional discriminations
Over conditioning with a small array (limited array
variation)
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of absent, weak, or defective
visual perception and matching-to-sample repertoire
Task is too easy because the comparison stimuli are
very different from each other
Limited training with large arrays, scenes, and
arrays in the natural environment
Limited training with similar stimuli in the array
Limited training with large arrays and similar stimuli
in scenes and in the natural environment
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of absent, weak, or defective echoic
Physiological variables (e.g., weak muscle control,
severe illnesses, cerebral palsy)
Little or no training or encouragement of echoic
responding has been provided
Weak automatic reinforcement for echoic and vocal
behavior
Possible automatic punishment (or other forms of
punishment) for vocal behavior
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of absent, weak, or defective echoic
Child demonstrates low rate babbling or vocal play
Adults have poor instructional control
Vocal self-stimulation interferes with echoic
development
Child has weak MOs for social interaction with other
people
Child doesn’t attend to vocal stimuli
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Common causes of absent, weak, or defective echoic
Targeted vocal sounds, blends, and words are out of
developmental sequence
Child has an aversive (failure) history regarding
attempts to teach echoic behavior
Generalization training has not been provided
Repertoire too strong (echolalia, prompt bound)
Automatic reinforcement for out-of-context verbal
responses (“Delayed echolalia”)
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Potential causes of scrolling
Responses that are first trained are not completely
acquired (weak SD control)
Failure to identify that scrolling is occurring
The response is actually under a specific type of prompt
rather than the target SD
The amount of discrimination training is insufficient
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Potential causes of scrolling
New words/signs are added too quickly
Scrolling gets intermittently reinforced
New stimuli and new responses are too similar
For mands, new MOs and specific reinforcement
are similar to the earlier ones
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Potential causes of scrolling
Maintenance and generalization trials are
insufficient
Failure to reinforce first wrong response evokes the
next response
Curriculum is out of sequence
Scrolling is less work than discriminating
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Instructional control/non-compliance
(escape and avoidance)
Many children with autism have learned ways to avoid or
terminate demands placed upon them.
These behaviors range from mild (e.g., looking away or
not responding) to severe (e.g., aggression and selfinjury).
Behavior’s function is often to escape from things they
don’t want to do (e.g., hair brushing, car seats,
instructional demands), or stimuli indicating unwanted
activities are coming (avoidance) (e.g., bedtime, turning
off the TV, table tasks)
These behaviors are common in typically developing
children, but can become quite severe for a child with
autism
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Instructional control/non-compliance
(escape and avoidance)
There are a number of potential causes for
instructional control problems. It is the job of the
behavior analyst conduct a descriptive and/or
functional analysis to determine the specific cause
for each individual child
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Potential causes of noncompliant behaviors
Avoidance or escape of the demand is (negatively)
reinforced (not followed through)
The child has a long history of successful avoidance
and escape behavior
Extinction bursts are reinforced
Intermittent reinforcement develops persistence
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Potential causes of noncompliant behaviors
Positive reinforcement also follows the
negative behaviors
Not enough reinforcement is provided for
compliance
Effective reinforcers are not identified, or
they cannot compete with negative
reinforcement
Demand is too high (e.g., task expectations
and curriculum issues)
VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
Potential causes of noncompliant behaviors
Demands are unclear or vague
Demand requires that child give up powerful
reinforcers
Demands are in the form of threats (coercive)
Steps to successful compliance are too large
Intervention program is inconsistent
Thank You!
For more information on verbal
behavior and links to other
material go to:
www.marksundberg.com