Teaching Verbal Behavior in Preschool

Teaching Verbal Behavior

• Lori, a teacher, uses popcorn to teach verbal behavior to preschoolers

• Students learn to request popcorn by verbalizing "popcorn."

• Functional analysis of verbal behavior:

  • Focuses on the controlling relations of the behavior, not just the form.
  • Analyzing how behavior is controlled by contingencies of reinforcement (how the learner was reinforced).

• Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior:

  • Analyzes language using principles of operant and respondent conditioning.
  • Uses the term "verbal behavior" instead of "speech" to avoid limitations to vocal behavior.
  • Contrasts with traditional approaches that see language origins as internal. Skinner's theory argues it arises from external reinforcement.
  • Verbal behavior is defined as behavior reinforced through the mediation of other persons.

• Verbal operants:

  • Mand: a verbal operant that a characteristic consequence reinforces.
  • Tact: a verbal operant in which a response of a given form is controlled by a nonverbal stimulus or object (e.g. "car").
  • Intraverbal: verbal responses evoked by other verbal discriminative stimuli.
  • Textual: response form is evoked by verbal discriminative stimuli (i.e., the products of someone else’s verbal behavior).
  • Echoic: speaker’s behavior controlled by an auditory stimulus from someone else’s vocal behavior.
  • Audience relation: the speaker’s behavior is influenced by audience and its social behavior.
  • Copying a text
  • Taking dictation

• Multiple control:

  • Most verbal behavior involves control from multiple variables.
  • Convergent control: one response controlled by multiple variables.
  • Divergent control: one variable strengthening multiple responses.

Selecting a Response Modality

• Modality (gesture, sign language, pictures) is not a factor in whether a behavior is verbal.
• Speech is the most common but not necessarily the best modality for all learners.
• Other modalities like sign language and communication boards can be used for certain learners.
• Speech can be challenging for autistic learners because they may not respond to social reinforcement like typical learners.

Teaching the Mand

• Mand teaching is crucial as it benefits the speaker directly
• Assessing learner preferences for reinforcers is important.
• Functional communication training (FCT) is used to reduce challenging behaviors by teaching alternative communication.
• Time delay prompting, errorless teaching, and interrupted-chain procedures are techniques used for mand training.
• Simple communication skills like asking for a break, help, or saying no are important. These are under functional control of aversive events, such as demands.