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Verbal Behavior Analysis: Inducing and Expanding New Verbal Capabilities in Children with Language Delays
Help children develop language and verbal functions!
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).
“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
Table of Contents
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 ...
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).
“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
Table of Contents
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 ...
322 pages, Paperback
First published May 11, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 21, 2010
brilliant analysis of skinner and the development of VBA out of ABA - not for the uninitiated, however. the book assumes an understanding of ABA and behavior therapy in general, as well as discrete trials. for those looking to expand their repertoire or gain more insight into language delays and opportunities for behavior interventions, this is a must read.
January 1, 2023
This book, the result of an impressive body of work in applied verbal behavior, is so chock-full of solid research and proven teaching techniques that I barely know where to begin my review. I have read this book cover-to-cover several times and continue to go back to it, each time culling more insight into the understanding and teaching of language as behavior. With the publication of Verbal Behavior Analysis, Greer and Ross provide a comprehensive behavioral systems approach to the development of language along with a set of protocols for teaching verbal operants and what the authors call "capabilities"—behavioral cusps—to individuals with language delays. Their teaching techniques are unique and not generally of the kind practitioners’ encounter in the field. More daringly, they also present a detailed behavioral account of the generativity of language, making a convincing case for their claim that language generativity can be accounted for by a purely environmental, behavior-selection account. That's exciting, in that it has the potential to bring two very different accounts of language closer together. Research, assessment, program descriptions, theory, eloquence - this book has it all. Read the authors' preface, and you will have an indication of the importance of this book and the context in which it should be read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews