Verbal Behavior Analysis: Inducing and Expanding New Verbal Capabilities in Children with Language Delays

Author(s): R.Douglas Greer

Children & Adolescents

Help children develop language and verbal functions! "This is definitely a book I will be purchasing for my professional use. I supervise student teachers in home-based programs as well as school programs and this book will be a perfect fit for the program implementation we currently present. Greer and Ross have produced an excellent accumulation of research compilation, assessment and program descriptions for implementation by professionals training and working with autistic children and adults." -Dr. Irfa Karmali, Shelby Residential and Vocational Services "Overall, a very technically accurate book and one well suited to accompany a practicum component in verbal behavior. Very comprehensive and [does] a good job of covering most questions, concerns and issues [for] training others to implement verbal behavior strategies. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it."
-Janet Goodman, University of West Georgia Responding to the overwhelming demand for effective language development tools for children with no language and severe language delays related to autism and other disabilities, Douglas Greer and Denise Ross present newly identified methods to assist teachers and parents in their efforts to provide verbal capabilities to children. In their book Verbal Behavior Analysis, Doug and Denise describe how to help children produce novel and spontaneous verbal functions, acquire language incidentally, and become socially verbal. They carefully integrate the latest research, including many new findings, and present readers with a clear outline of the current state of the science of verbal behavior and its application to children with real needs. Behavior analysts, parents, and teachers will find the procedures applicable to all forms of language (signs, pictures, and voice-generating devices) while maintaining a strong emphasis on the vocal production of a child's speech. * Describes how to teach children to be literate listeners, reducing the number of instructional times required to teach basic skills from four to ten times. (Chapter 3).
* Presents the necessary procedures to teach children to become observational learners. (Chapter 5 and 7). * Offers practitioners methods for teaching children to acquire novel language and language usage incidentally, allowing children to expand their language without direct instruction. (Chapters 3, 5, and 6). * Demonstrates helping children to move from emergent speakers to readers, and learn to enjoy books in free time, and to read. (Chapter 6). * Introduces a verbal developmental scheme to guide instruction and aid practitioners in determining which children need particular interventions and when they need them, along with alternative tactics and strategies for solving learning problems. (Chapters 2 and 7).


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Help children develop language and verbal functions! "This is definitely a book I will be purchasing for my professional use. I supervise student teachers in home-based programs as well as school programs and this book will be a perfect fit for the program implementation we currently present. Greer and Ross have produced an excellent accumulation of research compilation, assessment and program descriptions for implementation by professionals training and working with autistic children and adults." -Dr. Irfa Karmali, Shelby Residential and Vocational Services "Overall, a very technically accurate book and one well suited to accompany a practicum component in verbal behavior. Very comprehensive and [does] a good job of covering most questions, concerns and issues [for] training others to implement verbal behavior strategies. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it." -Janet Goodman, University of West Georgia Responding to the overwhelming demand for effective language development tools for children with no language and severe language delays related to autism and other disabilities, Douglas Greer and Denise Ross present newly identified methods to assist teachers and parents in their efforts to provide verbal capabilities to children. In their book Verbal Behavior Analysis, Doug and Denise describe how to help children produce novel and spontaneous verbal functions, acquire language incidentally, and become socially verbal. They carefully integrate the latest research, including many new findings, and present readers with a clear outline of the current state of the science of verbal behavior and its application to children with real needs. Behavior analysts, parents, and teachers will find the procedures applicable to all forms of language (signs, pictures, and voice-generating devices) while maintaining a strong emphasis on the vocal production of a child's speech. *Describes how to teach children to be literate listeners, reducing the number of instructional times required to teach basic skills from four to ten times. (Chapter 3). *Presents the necessary procedures to teach children to become observational learners. (Chapter 5 and 7). *Offers practitioners methods for teaching children to acquire novel language and language usage incidentally, allowing children to expand their language without direct instruction. (Chapters 3, 5, and 6). *Demonstrates helping children to move from emergent speakers to readers, and learn to enjoy books in free time, and to read. (Chapter 6). *Introduces a verbal developmental scheme to guide instruction and aid practitioners in determining which children need particular interventions and when they need them, along with alternative tactics and strategies for solving learning problems. (Chapters 2 and 7).

Doug Greer is Professor of Education and Psychology and Coordinator of the Programs in Behavior Analysis at Columbia University, Teachers College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where he has taught for 37 years. He is the author of over 120 research reports (27 on verbal behavior analysis) and conceptual publications in 25 different journals, as well as 12 books, and he has sponsored 130 doctoral dissertations. Greer is aFellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis and is the recipient of: (a) the American Psychology Association's Fed S. Keller Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education, (b) The Association for Behavior Analysis award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis, the designation of May 5 as the R. Douglas Greer day for Westchester County by the Westchester Legislature, and Distinguished Contributions to the Fred S. Keller School by The Fred S. Keller School. He is a CABAS(R) Board certified as a Senior Behavior Analyst and a Senior Research Scientist and has assisted in the development of CABAS(R) School in the USA, Ireland, England, and Italy. His research interests have included verbal behavior analysis, the development of verbal behavior, a learner-driven science of teaching and the organizational behavior analytic procedures to support that system, pediatric behavioral medicine, a behavioral psychology of music, and the induction of and applications of observational learning. He has served on the editorial boards of Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Journal of Behavioral Education, In Segnare all' Handicappato, Journal of Early and Intensive Behavioral Interventions (Associate Editor), European Journal of Behavior Analysis, The American Psychologist, Verplanck's Glossary and Thesaurus of The Science of Behavior, The Behavior Analyst, American Journal of Mental Deficiency, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, and the Journal of Music Therapy. Greer has served as distinguished visiting professor at five universities in Spain (Cadiz, Almeria, Oviedo, Grenada, and Salamanca), a higher education programs in applied behavior analysis in Norway, and has lectured at the University of Wales at Bangor. He has presented keynote addresses at conferences on behavior analysis in Canada, Israel, Nigeria, Japan, Spain, Ireland, England, Brazil, Norway, Italy, Taiwan, and Korea. Denise E. Ross is an associate professor of psychology and education in the Programs for Applied Behavior Analysis at Teachers College, Columbia University. She completed her PhD at Columbia University in 1998 and taught at Florida Atlantic University before joining Teachers College in 2002. Her research on verbal behavior and children with autism and other developmental disabilities has been published in Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, Research in Developmental Disabilities, the Journal of Behavioral Education, The Behavior Analyst Today, Journal of Early and Intensive Behavioral Interventions, and the Analysis of Verbal Behavior.

Chapter 1: Verbal Behavior Analysis and Verbal Development Introduction to Verbal Behavior Analysis The Relation Between Verbal Behavior Analysis and Basic and Applied Behavior Analysis Protocols for Inducing New Verbal Capabilities Selecting a Verbal Topography: Linguistic and Verbal Behavior Contributions Research in Verbal Behavior Analysis Developmental Milestones in Verbal Behavior Chapter 1 Summary Chapter 1 Endnotes Chapter 2: Teaching and Learning Verbal Operants and Verbal Developmental Capabilities: Definitions and Measurement Selecting Verbal Forms and Functions for Instruction Conducting and Recording Probes Probe Mastery Criterion, Data Collection and Graphing Presenting and Measuring Learn Units Presenting Learn Units Recording and Graphing Verbal Behavior Training Graphs Generalization Graphs Providing and Measuring Accurate Instructional Decisions Research Based Tactics for Intervention General Tactics Generic Pre-Listener-to-Speaker Tactics Generic Tactics for Children with Reader-Writer Capabilities Generic Tactics for Teaching Teachers, Parents, and Behavior Analysts The Learn Unit Context and Learn Unit Components The Decision Protocol: An Algorithm for Analyzing the Source of Learning Obstacles Identification of Decision Opportunities Trend Determination Learn Unit Context Analysis Selection of the Tactic Implementation of the Tactic Details of the Analytic Algorithm Strategic Questions to Ask about Motivational Conditions and Setting Events Strategic Questions to Ask about Instructional Histories and Prerequisite Repertoires Prerequisite stimulus control Measuring and Recording Developmental Milestones Defining Verbal Milestones Chapter 2 Summary Chapter 3: Learning to Listen: Induction of the Listener Repertoire of Verbal Development The Listener Role in Verbal Behavior Instructional Sequence for Teaching Listener Repertoires Basic Listener Literacy Sequence of Interventions to Induce Basic Listener Literacy (Table 3.1) Developing Initial Instructional Control: Five Basic Attentional Programs Protocol Description for the Five Basic Attentional Programs The Five Attentional Programs: Attention Control to Teacher Listener Emersion Protocol to Develop Vowel-Consonant Control for Listener Responses Other Prerequisites to Basic Listener Literacy Establishing Visual Tracking through Conditioning Eye Contact to Stimuli Sensory Matching or Establishing The Capacity for Sameness across Senses Conditioning Voices as Reinforcers Auditory Matching of Words Auditory Matching Steps Inducing the Listener Component of Naming Chapter 3 Summary Chapter 3 Endnotes Chapter 4: Basic Teaching Operations for Early Speaker Functions The Behavioral Functions of the Speaker Parroting and Echoics Establishing Operations and Mands Tacts Similarities and Differences between Mand and Tact Instruction Echoic-to-Mand-Procedure (Level 1 of Mand Training) Mand Function Instruction (Level 2 of Mand Instruction) Echoic to Tact Training (Level 1 of Tact Training) Tact Teaching Sequence (Level 2 of Tact Training) Autoclitics with Mands and Tacts Alternative Procedures for Teaching Echoic-to-Mand and Echoic-to-Tact Responses Stimulus-stimulus Pairing Procedure Rapid Motor Imitation Speaker Immersion Inducing Transformation of Establishing Operations Across Mand and Tact Functions Naming Basic Visual Discrimination to Occasion the Advancement of Speaker and Listener Repertoires Inducing Full Naming The Importance of Tacts Procedures for Rapid Expansion of Tacts through Direct Contact with Learn Units Chapter 4 Summary Chapter 4 Endnotes Chapter 5: Inducing Advanced Speaker Functions and Correcting Faulty Vocal Behavior Advancing Key Verbal Capabilities Inducing and Expanding Tact and Intraverbal Capabilties Tact Capabilities Intraverbal Capabilities Capability 1: Acquisition of new tacts by direct learn units Capability 2: Recruitment of new tacts by using "wh" and "how" questions Capability 3: Acquisition of new tacts incidentally via naming Capability 4: Learning tacts from observation or indirect contact with contingencies received by others Learning Tacts from Observation Instructional Procedure for Teaching Observational Learning of Tacts (Developing Tacts by Observing Others Receive Learn Units) Pre and Post-Intervention Evaluation Probes for Observational Learning of Tacts Yoked-contingency interventions Joint Yoked-contingency and Peer Monitoring Protocol Intraverbal Capabilities and Social Interaction Conversational Units Capability 5: Learning Intraverbal Functions of Self-Talk Capability 6: Acquisition of conversational units and related speaker-listener exchanged Pre and Post Assessment for Conversational Units and Sequilics Acquiring the Listener Reinforcement Component of Social Exchanges General Game Board Description and Set-up Part 1: I spy, 20 questions Part 2-- 20 Questions: Tact and textual response Part 3-- Bingo Part 4-- Peer tutoring with the game board Part 5-- Group instruction with the game board Part 6-- Teaching empathy ("What can you do to help" program) Capability 7: Learning deictic functions or taking the perspective of others Deictic Probes Production program for emission of appropriate talking Replacing Echolalia and Palilalia with Functional Verbal Behavior Fixing Improperly Learned Control of Echoic Responses Textual Test and Textual Stimulus Prompt Protocol Auditory Matching to Correct Faulty Echoic Responding Replacing Vocal Stereotypy with Functional Verbal Behavior Assessing the function of vocal stereotypy Tact Protocol to Replace Palilalia Chapter 5 Summary Chapter 5 Endnotes Chapter 6: Reading and Writing: Print-Goverened and Print-Governing Verbal Behavior Scope and Purpose of the Print Control Chapter Book Conditioning Protocol Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing Training/Test Trials for Conditioning Stimuli as Reinforcers for Observi Probes for Conditioning Reinforcement for Observing Books Word-Picture Discrimination and Matching Tactics for Teaching Word-Picture and Matching Discrimination Using the Edmark (R) Reading Series Reading Comprehension from Hearing One's Own Textual Responses Multiple Exemplar Instruction Auditory and Visual Components of Reading Responses Adding Print Stimuli to the Joint Control over Speaker and Listener Responding in the Naming Capability Phonetic Reading for Textual Responding: Acquiring the Topography Using the Auditory Matching Protocol in Solving Phonetic Reading Difficulties Motivational Functions of Reading and Writing Establishing the "Need to Read" Establishing the Topography of Writing Establishing the "Need to Write" Chapter 6 Summary Chapter 7 Problems in Verbal Development, Current Solutions, and a Trajectory for More Solutions Foundations of Speaker and Listener Capabilities When Attention to Teacher is Missing When Attention to Instructional Stimuli is Missing When the Capacity for Sameness is Missing When the Capability to be reinforced for attention to adult voices is missing Capability for Emitting Speaker Verbal Operants When the Capability To Match Consonant/Vowel Combinations Of Spoken Words Is Missing Or Speech Is Faulty When Basic Listener Literacy Is Missing When there are Few Tacts in Repertoire: Expand the Tact Repertoire The Listener Capability Of Naming Is Missing; Implement The Multiple Exemplar Protocol For The Listener Component Of Naming When Capability For Observational Learning of Tacts Is Missing When the Capability of Observational Learning of Tacts is Missing Fixing Faulty Echoic and Intraverbal Repertoires Joining Speaker and Listener Capabilities Speaker-as-own-listener How to Expand Tacts Before Naming is Present Continue Rapid Expansion of the Tact Repertoire Observational learning of tacts and the "Wh" repertoire Expanding observational learning of tacts and the observational learning capability Inducing Observational Learning if it is Missing Stages of Verbal Development A Note on Scientific Evidence Some Suggested Areas of Further Research

General Fields

  • : 9780205458370
  • : Pearson Education (US)
  • : Allyn & Bacon
  • : May 2007
  • : United States
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : R.Douglas Greer
  • : Paperback
  • : 371.9046
  • : 336
  • : Illustrations