What is Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour?

B.F. Skinner was an American psychologist. He was one of the founding fathers of ABA. He developed Verbal Behaviour (VB) as a way of understanding language. An American Psychological Association survey, from 2002, ranked Skinner as the most influential psychologist of the 20th century.

Skinner developed the verbal operants:

• Mands (requests)
• Tacts (labels)
• Echoics (repeating)
• Intraverbals (answering questions and having conversations)
• Autoclitics (using phrases that impact the other verbal operants in the sentence)

Upcoming posts will discuss each of the verbal operants in greater detail.

How is Verbal Behaviour Different than ABA?

VB is a way of thinking about language. ABA is the science of behaviour and learning. A VB program will incorporate the principles of ABA to teach the different verbal operants. For example, a VB program would use reinforcement, chaining and shaping.

How to teach Verbal Behaviour?

Many people pick one or two verbal operants to focus their teaching on. However, this is not the best way to teach language. Whenever possible it’s best to teach across operants. That means teaching a child to identify something as well as request it and be able to answer questions about it. Knowing the tacts for objects won’t be helpful if the child can’t use those tacts to mand for items.

What about assessments?

The VB Mapp (Verbal Behavior Milestone Assessment and Placement Program) assesses children’s language development. It is a criterion-referenced assessment meaning it measures student performance of a specific skill. This is different than a norm-referenced assessment. These look at a student’s performance compared to other students.

The VB Mapp has 3 levels. Included are specific tests for echoics, barriers and transitions. As the child grows and learns they move from level 1 to 3. In each level there are a number of domains. A child should master the earlier skills in a domain before moving to the more complex skills. To measure the child’s progress, the VB Mapp should be re-administered every 6 months.

How does verbal behaviour help my autistic child?

Understanding the purpose of the words we use is extremely important to being an effective communicator. The person learns that communication can help them have their needs met. Communication isn’t always spoken language.

To learn more about how your child can benefit from a Verbal Behaviour based ABA program, reach out!