Transcript Slide 1

A Verbal Behavior Approach to
Teaching Language to Children
with Autism
Presented By: Katie Cole, MS,
BCBA and Cassondra M. Gayman,
MS, BCBA
• Mariposa School background
– Who we are
– What we do
– How we do it
In the next 90 minutes we hope to:
•
Provide an overview of ABA
•
Discuss basic behavioral principles and procedures
•
Overview of Verbal Behavior
•
Discuss the main verbal operants
•
Common components of a VB program
•
The importance of the mand
•
Teaching procedures
– NET
– Intensive Teaching
•
Q&A
What is Applied Behavior Analysis?
• The modern form of the philosophy of behaviorism
• Skinner laid the foundation for modern behaviorism in
1938
• ABA is the science from which procedures derived
from principles of behavior are systematically
applied to improve socially significant behaviors.
Cooper, Heron, Heward (1987).
– Principles applied to improve socially significant behaviors
– Analysis of behavior used to identify variables (causes) for
behavior
What is Behavior?
• Anything a living organism says or does
• Getting an A on a test is an Outcome
• Effective studying is a Behavior
• Dead man test
• Skinner distinguished between operant and reflexive behavior.
– Operant = voluntary (affected by reinforcement)
– Reflex behavior = involuntary (salivating, knee jerk)
• Skinner later (1957) defined language as behavior in his book
Verbal Behavior
Who Benefits from ABA?
• Troubled teens, typical children, parents, business people, person’s
with developmental disabilities, and you and me.
•
1965 Lovaas, Schaeffer, & Simmons decreased self-injury in children with
Autism.
•
1987 Lovaas study to demonstrate efficacy of ABA as treatment with
children with Autism.
Why Do We Do What We Do?
• All behavior has a function
• Identifying the function tells us
– the conditions in which the behavior may
occur
– a possibly effective treatment method / how to
respond to the behavior
What are the Functions of
Behavior?
•
Escape/Avoidance – escaping or avoiding a demand situation
– Often occur during work type situations
•
Attention – a behavior to gain the attention of others
– This can be positive or negative attention
•
Access – a behavior to gain access to an object or situation
– Food, toys, warmth
•
Automatic – a behavior that “feels good
– Self-Stimulatory or Stereotypy.
How to Determine Function?
•
Three Levels of Assessment
•
Functional Assessment
– Informal/indirect
•
•
•
•
Record reviews
Interviews
Checklists
Descriptive
– Descriptive
• Data collection in natural settings
– Frequency Measures
– ABC data
– Scatterplots
•
Experimental (Functional Analysis)
– Probes in natural setting
– Analogues
– Should only be conducted with the supervision of BCBA
What next?
• Treatment should be based on function
• Identify behavior targeted for change
• Prevention (Antecedent) strategies should also
be put into place
• Replacement behaviors should always be taught
• Treatment plan based on behavior principles
Interventions Based on Function
Attention
Access to
Tangibles
Escape/
Avoidance
Automatic –
Self/Sensory
Stimulation
Prevention
Strategies
•Teach manding
(requesting) skills
•Set up routine of
regular attention
delivery.
•Give 8 positive
comments to every
negative 1.
•Teach manding
(requesting) skills
•Set up routine and
schedule reinforcing
activities frequently
throughout the day
•Pair work area with
high rates of
reinforcement
•Gradually fade in
demands
•Place simple
demands you can
prompt
•Teach manding
(requesting) skills
•Teach manding
(requesting) skills
•Enrich environment
(music, color, toys)
•Engage child in
preferred activities
during day
•Teach child functional
play skills
When
behavior
occurs
•Ignore behavior/ walk
away
•Short time out from
reinforcement (with
supervision) then
redirect to a neutral
activity.
•Count to 5 to yourself
after problem behavior
ceases then provide
opportunity to mand.
•Short time out from
reinforcement (with
supervision) then
redirect to a neutral
activity.
•Continue with
demand unless
behavior will cause
serious bodily harm.
•Block access to
reinforcment until
compliance is gained.
•Physically prompt
when necessary.
•Analyze own
behavior after each
episode to prevent
future behaviors.
•Ignore mild behaviors
that will not cause
injury.
•Block potentially
harmful behaviors such
as self-injury.
•Redirect to another
activity once behavior
has ceased for 5-10
seconds.
Principles and Procedures:
• When we talk about increasing behavior,
we’re talking about the procedure called
REINFORCEMENT
• When we talk about decreasing behavior,
we’re talking about the procedure called
PUNISHMENT
• Reinforcement:Increase as
Punishment:Decrease
Principles and Procedures:
• Reinforcement (increase the response):
– A consequence follows a behavior and
increases the future frequency of that
behavior under similar circumstances
Principles and Procedures:
• Positive vs. Negative Reinforcement
– Both INCREASE behavior!
• Positive Reinforcement
– Giving something a person finds desirable
after the behavior occurs
• Negative Reinforcement
– Removing something that the individual finds
aversive.
Principles and Procedures:
• Positive Reinforcement Example:
• Situation - A child sees a candy bar in the grocery store and wants
it.
– Child screams “I want candy” and throws a tantrum. Adult hands him
the candy. (Reinforcement of inappropriate behavior)
– Child signs or says ‘candy’. Adult hands him the candy.
(Reinforcement of appropriate behavior)
• Discussion: In both examples, the child has learned that his
behavior gets him what he wants, so he is likely to repeat this
behavior next time.
Principles and Procedures:
• Negative Reinforcement Example:
•
Situation: The radio is playing loudly in the room.
•
The child comes into the room and begins screaming. Somebody rushes
over to turn down the radio.
(Reinforcement of inappropriate behavior)
•
•
•
•
The child comes in and covers his ears saying “Too loud”. Somebody
rushes over to turn down the radio.
(Reinforcement of appropriate behavior)
Discussion: In both examples, the child has learned that his behavior gets
him what he wants, so he is likely to repeat this behavior next time.
Principles and Procedures:
• Punishment (decrease the response):
– A consequence follows a behavior and
decreases the future frequency of that
behavior under similar circumstances
Principles and Procedures:
• Positive vs. Negative Punishment
– Both DECREASE behavior!
• Positive Punishment
– Applying something the individual finds
aversive
• Negative Punishment
– Taking away something the individual finds
pleasurable right after the behavior has
occurred.
Principles and Procedures:
• Situation: Teenager misses his curfew.
• Positive Punishment Example:
– Parent states that he has to rake the yard this weekend.
(Application of something aversive)
• Negative Punishment Example:
– Parent states that he cannot attend a planned event. (Removal
of a reinforcing or desired activity)
Principles and Procedures:
• Problems with punishment:
– May elicit aggression or other emotional side effects
– May result in escape or avoidance behaviors
– May be negatively reinforcing for the person using
punishment --- misuse/overuse of punishment
– Because of these problems…
• Punishment as LAST RESORT
Principles and Procedures:
• Extinction:
– Removing or withholding the consequence
(reinforcement) that maintains behavior.
Discontinuing reinforcement of a previously reinforced
behavior .
– Results in a DECREASE in frequency of the behavior.
• Examples:
– Soda machine
– Candy Isle
Principles and Procedures:
• Differential Reinforcement:
– 2 separate forms of behavior
• One is reinforced (increased)
• One is extinguished (decreased)
• Examples:
– Request for candy
Principles and Procedures:
• Shaping:
– A process through which we gradually modify existing behavior
into what we want it to be. Successive approximation toward
terminal behavior. Uses differential reinforcement.
• Examples
– Swing sign example
– Banana vocal example
Principles and Procedures:
• Prompting:
– Assistance provided to promote correct responding.
• Full physical, partial physical, model…
• Full echoic, phonemic…
• Fading:
– Systematic removal of the prompt
Principles and Procedures:
• All of the above mentioned principles and
procedures have a solid and extensive
foundation of empirical research. There
have been over 1500 published studies
within the past 60 years establishing these
principles of behavior.
Verbal Behavior
• Language is learned behavior, acquired
and maintained by the same principles of
behavior responsible for non-language
behavior (Cooper, Heron, Heward, 2007).
• In 1957, Skinner published Verbal
Behavior.
• Verbal behavior is defined by function
rather than form
Verbal Behavior
• Function vs. Form
– Formal properties of language:
• Topography = Form. Form of language can be measured
by phonemes, morphemes, lexicon, syntax, grammar, and
semantics.
• Also can be classified as nouns, verbs, pronouns,
adjectives…
– Functional properties of language:
• Involve the causes of the response.
– We need to look at BOTH!
Skinner’s Classification of
Language
• Skinner’s classification of language
different from linguists, who classify words
as parts of speech (noun, pronoun, verb,
adjective etc…)
• “This is an apple.” = APPLE classified as
noun.
• What does that tell us?
Behavioral Classification of
Language
• Mand (Requesting): Asking for reinforcers you want.
– Requires a Motivating Operation (MO) & specifies its own reinforcer.
– Only operant that benefits the speaker
• Tact (Labeling): Naming or identifying objects, actions, events etc…
– Does not specify it’s own reinforcer & benefits the listener
• Echoic (Vocal Imitation): Repeating what someone said
–
Does not specify it’s own reinforcer & benefits the listener
• Intraverbal: Answering questions or having conversations where
your words are controlled by other words.
– Does not specify it’s own reinforcer & benefits the listener
Apple as a Mand
• You’re hungry and want something to eat
– You have an MO (Motivation) to ask for food
• You say “APPLE” and get the apple to eat
– The reinforcer is getting the apple
– The speaker benefits from this operant
APPLE AS A TACT
• Someone shows you a pictures of an
apple and asks you what it is. You say
“APPLE” you have given a Tact for the
apple.
– LABEL, NAME
• The source of reinforcement is praise or
approval, not the apple
Apple as an Echoic
• In an echoic, the person “Echoes” the
same sounds that were heard
• Someone says “APPLE” and you repeat
“APPLE”
• The reinforcement for doing so may be
praise or approval
Apple as an Intraverbal
• Someone says “What is the fruit that’s
red and grows on trees”. You say
“Apple”
• The item is not present
• The answer does not specify the
reinforcer
Apple as Receptive
• Three pictures are presented in front of
you someone asks you to “Touch the
picture of the apple.”
• The reinforcer is praise
Why Do We Say What We Say?
• All language has a function
• The same word (apple) has many
meanings
• Many children with Autism do not
generalize a word across operants.
• Just because a child can label an apple
doesn’t mean they can mand for an apple.
We Must Teach All The “Meanings”
of a Word
Mand
Tact
Echoic
Apple
Intraverbal
Receptive
RFFC
Textual
Receptive Versus Expressive
• Many other philosophies classify
language as either expressive or
receptive.
• Problems arise when we talk about all
the functions of expressive language
“VB vs ABA?”
• “What
is the difference between VB and
ABA?”
• VB IS ABA!!
• Verbal behavior involves the same behavioral principles
that make up the analysis of nonverbal behavior. No
new principles are required. The principles implemented
in a VB program are the same ones that have the solid
and extensive empirical research foundation discussed
earlier.
Verbal Behavior
• When people ask the question, “What’s
the difference between “VB and ABA?”
what they likely mean is, “What is the
difference between a ‘traditional ABA’
program and an ABA program using VB
methodology?”
ABA and Autism Treatment
• Ivar Lovaas (1987)
– Significant advancements in the field of ABA,
specifically related to teaching children with autism.
– Research suggesting ABA is an effective treatment for
autism
– This “method” uses principles of reinforcement,
shaping, chaining, prompting/fading, extinction… to
teach vocal language as well as a variety of other
behaviors, including imitation, matching-to-sample,
and following commands behaviors. The main
method in which these behaviors are taught is
through Discrete Trial Training (DTT)
Discrete Trial Training (DTT)
-
Breaking a skill into smaller components
-
Teaching one sub-skill at a time until mastery
-
SD ----Response----Consequence
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Providing prompting and prompt fading as necessary
-
Use of reinforcement procedures
What about VB?
• Does VB use DTT to teach skills?
– YES!
– A solid VB program will also use
reinforcement, shaping, chaining,
prompting/fading, extinction… to teach a
variety of vocal and nonvocal behaviors to
children with autism.
Verbal Behavior
• What does a VB program have that a
“traditional ABA” program tends not to
have?
– A functional analysis of language!
Verbal Behavior
• A VB program is based on a functional
analysis of language, rather than a
structural one.
• Traditional linguistics receptive/expressive
distinction, which focuses on form rather
than function, dominates assessment and
intervention programs for kids with autism.
Verbal Behavior
• Recall 3 of the operants discussed earlier.
The mand, tact, and intraverbal would all
be classified as “expressive language”.
This structural classification system will
mask important distinctions.
– Different sources of antecedent control
– Failure to emerge across operants without
training.
Other differences…
• Other differences between a “traditional ABA”
program and a VB program:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Pairing
Balance of NET and DTT
Data Methods – cold probe
Mix and Vary across operants
Errorless teaching
Error correction
Transfer Procedures
Focus on the mand
Importance of the Mand
• Specifies what speaker is motivated by
• Allows us to establishing rapport with the
learner
• Essential in teaching other skills
• First operant learned by typical children
Importance of the Mand
• Key to replacing problem behaviors
• Only operant that benefits the speaker
• Essential for advanced social interactions
• Doesn’t necessary emerge by training the
other verbal operants
Teaching Manding in the Natural
Environment
Elements of a Good VB Program
 Playing = Learning
 “Pairing” techniques used to make a situation, person or activity
reinforcing and expand child’s interests
 Learner makes constant requests for desired items, actions,
information etc. (manding)
 Creating and capturing motivation (MO)
Examples:
1) Favorite toy out of reach; learner must request it
2) Child wants to go outside; teacher stands by door and
waits for learner to ask for door to be opened
Elements of a Good VB Program
 Errorless learning
 Prompting occurs BEFORE an incorrect response is made
and inadvertently learned
 Child is less frustrated
 Error Correction Procedure
 Prompt fading (Most to least) 0 – 3 second delay
 Prevents prompt dependency and encourages independent
thinking
Elements of a Good VB Program
 Rapid responding (fluency)
 Leads to better retention
 In the “real world” other children don’t wait for answers
 A high rate of correct responses (Fast paced instruction)
 Keeps learner “on task”
 Reinforces acquisition of skills
 Skills generalized immediately
 Skills are more useful when they can be performed in a
variety of places and conditions
 Mixed and varied tasks
 Keeps the learner “on his toes” and prevents boredom
Elements of a Good VB Program
 Difficult tasks interspersed with easy tasks to keep level of
reinforcement high
 Words are taught through all functional categories of language
 Transfer procedures to make learning easier
EXAMPLE: (errorless receptive to tact transfer)
Instructor: “Show me the cat.”
Student: (touches cat)
Instructor: “What is that? Cat. (pause) What is that?”
Student: “Cat.”
Elements of a Good VB Program:
Video Examples
Journals
•
The Analysis of Verbal Behavior http://www.abainternational.org/journals.asp
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The Behavior Analyst http://www.abainternational.org/journals.asp
•
Behavior Analysts in Practice http://www.abainternational.org/journals.asp
•
The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/jaba/
•
The Journal of Early and Intensive Behavior Intervention http://www.jeibi.com/
•
The Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis
http://www.slp-aba.com/
•
The Behavior Analyst Today http://www.behavior-analyst-today.com/
•
The International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy http://www.ijbct.com/
Websites
•
Association for Behavior Analysis www.abainternational.org/
•
North Carolina Association for Behavior Analysis www.nc-aba.com/
•
Surgeon General's Report on ABA and Autism
www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/chapter3/sec6.html#autism
•
Behavior Analysts, Inc www.behavioranalysts.com/
•
Behavior Analyst Certification Board www.bacb.com/
•
Mark Sundberg www.marksundberg.com/
•
Association for Science in Autism Treatment www.asatonline.org/resources/treatments_desc.htm
•
The Carbone Clinic www.drcarbone.net/
•
Establishing Operations www.establishingoperationsinc.com/
•
Christina Burke, MA www.christinaburkaba.com/
•
First Signs www.firstsigns.org/
•
Healing Thresholds http://autism.healingthresholds.com/
•
Yahoo Groups
Verbal Behaivor, DTT-NET, ABA Job Connections, Wake County ASNC
Books
•
The Verbal Behavior Approach, By: Mary Lynch Barbera, RN, MSN, BCBA
•
The Out of Sync Child Has Fun, By: Carol Stock Kranowitz, MA
•
Functional Behavior Assessment for People with Autism, By: Beth A. Glasberg, Ph.D
•
Functional Assessment, By: Lynette K. Chandler and Carol M. Dahlquist
•
Verbal Behavior Analysis, By: R. Douglas Greer and Denise E. Ross
•
Applied Behavior Analysis, By: John O. Cooper, Timothy E. Heron, and William L. Heward
•
The Picture Exchange Communication System, By: Lori Frost, MS, CCC/SLP and Andy
Bondy, Ph.D
•
Teaching Language to Children with Autism or Other Developmental Disabilities, By: Mark
L. Sundberg and James W. Partington
Informative Videos/DVDs
• Establishing Operations, Inc
www.establishingoperationsinc.com/
• Teaching Verbal Behavior in the Natural Environment: Teaching
Signs
• Teaching Verbal Behavior in the Natural Environment: Teaching
Vocal Mands (Requesting)
• Teaching Verbal Behavior in the Intensive Teaching
Environment: Getting Started
• Teaching Verbal Behavior in the Intensive Teaching
Environment: Teaching the Tact. "Expressive Label
Thank You
For Attending
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