Verbal Behavior Targets

This book is a resource for teaching young children with autism, PDD, Down syndrome or other language delays. It contains targets aimed at teaching language to children who have skills in the range of non-verbal to pre-conversational, and provides lists of common and practical language to teach a child.

The Verbal Behavior (VB) approach is a form of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), that is based on B.F. Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior and works particularly well with children with minimal or no speech abilities. In this book Dr. Mary Lynch Barbera draws on her own experiences as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and also as a parent of a child with autism to explain VB and how to use it. This step-by-step guide provides an abundance of information about how to help children develop better language and speaking skills, and also explains how to teach non-vocal children to use sign language. An entire chapter focuses on ways to reduce problem behavior, and there is also useful information on teaching toileting and other important self-help skills, that would benefit any child. This book will enable parents and professionals unfamiliar with the principles of ABA and VB to get started immediately using the Verbal Behavior approach to teach children with autism and related disorders.

In 1934, at the age of 30, B. F. Skinner found himself at a dinner sitting next to Professor Alfred North Whitehead. Never one to lose an opportunity to promote behaviorism, Skinner expounded its main tenets to the distinguished philosopher. Whitehead acknowledged that science might account for most of human behavior but he would not include verbal behavior. He ended the discussion with a challenge: "Let me see you," he said, "account for my behavior as I sit here saying, 'No black scorpion is falling upon this table.'" The next morning Skinner began this book. It took him over twenty years to complete. This book extends the laboratory-based principles of selection by consequences to account for what people say, write, gesture, and think. Skinner argues that verbal behavior requires a separate analysis because it does not operate on the environment directly, but rather through the behavior of other people in a verbal community. He illustrates his thesis with examples from literature, the arts, and sciences, as well as from his own verbal behavior and that of his colleagues and children. Perhaps it is because this theoretical work provides a way to approach that most human of human behavior that Skinner ofter called Verbal Behavior his most important work.

The Verbal Behavior (VB) approach is a form of Applied Behavior Analysis that is based on B.F. Skinner's analysis of verbal behaviour. In this book Barbera draws on her experiences as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and also as a parent of a child with autism to explain VB and how to use it.

Verbal Behavior Analysis describes newly identified tools to provide verbal capabilities to children who have language delays or who lack language. This book assists teachers and parents in their efforts to help children produce novel and spontaneous verbal functions, acquire language incidentally, and become socially verbal. This book responds to the large demand for effective language development tools for children with no language and severe language delays related to autism and other disabilities by providing practitioners with the means to advance verbal development. Step-by-step protocols describe how to move children from pre-listeners to listeners, non-speakers to speakers, speakers to readers and writers, and from non-social to socially verbal individuals. The procedures are derived from numerous experiments and applications with children in three countries, and are based on Skinner's (1957) theory of language function and on research findings that extended the theory to verbal development. The authors synthesize research published across several different journals, including many new findings, in ways that provide readers with the current state of the science of verbal behavior and its application to children with real needs. While the book emphasizes the vocal production of speech, the procedures are applicable to all forms of language (signs, pictures, voice-generating devices). The book includes an extensive glossary of terms from behavior analysis and verbal behavior analysis. The instructor's manual provides a course outline, quizzes, and protocols for training professionals to use the procedures with fidelity in applied settings. If you are a professor accustomed to receiving review copies, we regret that due to the limited number of appropriate courses we are unable to provide review copies of this title.

Studies in Verbal Behavior: An Empirical Approach summarizes the results of empirical studies on the variables that control verbal behavior. These studies explore the response properties of verbal behavior already acquired, with respect to size of unit, mode of emission, and the constraining effects of sentence frames. The stimulus situation in which the behavior is emitted, the use of verbal material as stimulus, and the relationship between sequential guessing of sentences and the marking off of ""idea unit"" boundaries in the same material are also discussed. This volume first introduces the reader to situations which will best allow us to view the basic lawfulness inherent in the control of verbal behavior. In particular, it explores response bias and serial effects in a modified Shannon Guessing Game and compares oral and written verbal behavior. Attention then turns to the manner in which the verbal stimulus controls various forms of behavior, paying particular attention to search time as a function of target location and frequency in language, along with some stimulus properties of syntagmatic and paradigmatic word sequences. The next section analyzes the effects of limiting the generation of sentences by length and by the presence of certain words or grammatical endings (bound morphemes) in particular positions of each sentence. Some characteristics of sentences as response units are highlighted. This book will be of value to psychologists and those who are interested in verbal behavior.

One of Lulu's best sellers of all time, the second edition of the book Educate Toward Recovery is now called Motivation and Reinforcement: Turning the Tables on Autism. This book is the ultimate guide to home based autism intervention. It is a forward-thinking guide that translates the Verbal Behavior Approach to ABA into everyday language. With over 100 new pages of material including new Chapters on Social Skills, Behavior Plans, Token Economies, and Advanced Instructional Control methods, this book is a must have even for those who own the 2006 version. International ABA/VB presenter Robert Schramm, explains how you can keep your child engaged in motivated learning throughout his entire day without forcing participation, blocking escape, or nagging procedures. M&R is the full realization of modern ABA/VB Autism Intervention and a great resource for parents, teachers, and therapists working with a child with autism as well as BCBA's looking for ways to improve their approach.