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"Williams and Greer (1993) compared the number of words correctly used across train- ing trials and the accuracy of responses during maintenance probes for three adolescents diagnosed with developmental disabilities across VB [verbal behavior] and linguistic (similar to that found in many Lovass pro- grams) curricula. Operant training proce- dures, specified as incidental and discrete-trial procedures, were held constant across condi- tions. In general, procedural features included the antecedent use of nonverbal and verbal discriminative stimuli, contingent conse- quences including praise and access to addi- tional stimuli or events, and the contingent opportunity to mand for those stimuli or events known to have reinforcing properties for a particular participant. Different words were taught across the curriculum-specific phases, with the exception of "yes/no" responses, which were taught in both curric- ula. The VB curriculum consisted of target responses that were first taught as, [echoics to mands and echoics to tacts, where mands resulted in the reinforcers and tacts in general- ized reinforcement.] A series of autoclitic responses was also trained [specific to each verbal function]. The linguistic curriculum included target responses derived from the program developed by Guess, Sailor, and Baer (1976) in which individuals were first taught to label novel items when asked "What's that?," and were then taught to label actions, persons, and things in a similar manner. Next, individu- als were taught to state possession and color by responding to questions such as, "Is this my/your—?" and "What color?" Finally, par- ticipants were taught to describe the size, loca- tion, and relationship of relevant items to

other stimuli. Williams and Greer (1993) implemented two phases of training in each curriculum using an ABAB design in which the VB curriculum was always implemented first. Although the number of correct trials for each participant was similar across training condi- tions, the number of words emitted during the VB training sessions exceeded the number of words emitted during the linguistic training sessions. The authors also reported that more words taught during previous VB phases were emitted in the context of subsequent training phases for 2 of 3 participants, while the overall number of appropriate words taught during previous linguistic phases that occurred dur- ing subsequent training phases was lower. During maintenance probes that occurred fol- lowing the completion of the first linguistic phase, the second VB phase, and the second linguistic phase, considerably more correct tri- als were completed from the VB curriculum than those revisited from the linguistic cur- riculum. The results of multiple maintenance probes conducted at the completion of train- ing and covering all of the words taught across all phases showed a greater percentage of cor- rect responses for the VB curriculum. Hence, the authors demonstrated considerable sup- port for their VB language curriculum given its comparative effectiveness over the linguis- tic curriculum across a number of dependent measures. The Williams and Greer (1993) investigation is noteworthy because it was the first attempt to directly compare Skinnerian and traditional linguistic language curricula and, thus, can be considered more direct evi- dence of support for the VB approach than studies based on single verbal operants (e.g., Braam & Poling, 1983)." (pp. 20-21)

From Carr, J . , & Firth, A. (2005). The verbal behavior approach to early and intensive behavioral intervention for autism: A call for additional empirical support. Journal of'Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention, 2, 18-27.

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repertoires. In that vein, current research in verbal behavior has identified verbal development schemes that can be tied to experiences (see Table 1.3). These are partic- ularly useful for those who seek to identify ways to accelerate learning, compensate for native or environmental deficits, and use developmental stages based on critical capa- bilities. While much more research is needed to identify more subcomponents of major stages of verbal development, the existing stages and subcomponents have proven useful in applications with numerous children. As a result, we can organize children's progress according to verbal developmental stages or verbal capabilities. While there are many other appropriate developmental schemes, in our work with hundreds of children, these milestones have become a relatively predictable taxonomy. These capabilities can now be established for some children who are missing them. This allows professionals to help children progress to more complex capabilities in verbal development. The continuum of developmental stages in Table 1.3 repre- sents a progression of functional verbal capabilities that are not based on age, although they are often correlated with it; rather, they are functional capabilities that can be brought about or induced with certain intensive learning experiences.

At present, we believe that these verbal capabilities are likely derived from the kinds of experiences that typically developing children gain through their caretakers'

TABLE 1.3 Evolution of Verbal Capacity Milestones and Independence Verbal Milestones Effects on Independent Functioning

1. Pre-Listener Status

2.Listener Status

3. Speaker Status

4. Speaker-Listener Exchanges with Others (Sequelics and Conversational Units)

Total dependency. Individuals without listener repertoires are entirely depend- ent on others. Interdependency and entrance to the social community are not possible.

Individuals can perform verbally governed behavior (e.g., come here, stop,

eat). Individuals can comply with instructions, track tasks (e.g., do this, now do

this), and avoid deleterious consequences while gaining habilitative responses. The individual is still dependent, but direct dependent physical contact can be replaced somewhat by indirect verbal governance. Contributions to the well- being of society become possible since some interdependency is feasible and they can enter the social community.

Individuals in the presence of a listener can govern consequences in their envi- ronment by using another to mediate their environment (e.g., eat now, toilet, coat, help). This is a significant step toward controlling events by the individ- ual. The culture benefits proportionately too, and the capacity to be part of the social community is gready expanded.

a) Sequelics. Individuals respond as listeners and speakers to intraverbals including impure tacts ("What is that?") and impure mands ("What do you want?"). Individuals can respond to questions in mand, tact, or intraverbal functions. They respond as speakers to verbal antecedents and answer the queries of others such as "What hurts? What do you want? What's that? What do you see, hear, or feel?" As a listener, they are reinforced by speaker responses, b) Conversational Units. An individual emits conversational

Verbal Behavior Analysis and Verbal Development 1 9 TABLE 1.3 (Continued)

Verbal Milestones Effects on Independent Functioning

5. Speaker-as-Own- Listener Status, Say-Do, Conversa- tional Units, and Naming 6. Reader Status 7. Writer Status 8. Writer as Own Reader: Self- Editing Status 9. Verbal Mediation for Solving Problems

units when they are reinforced as both a speaker and listener. The individual engages in interlocking verbal operants as a speaker and listener by alternating listener and speaker functions with another. The individual is reinforced as a listener by sensory extensions and as a speaker by the behavior of the listener. Three types of speaker-as-own-listener are identified in the research, a) Say and Do. Individuals can function as a listener to their own verbal behavior (e.g., First I do this, then I do this). At this stage, the person achieves corre- spondence between what they say they will do and what they do.

b) Self-talk. Self-talk involves the child functioning as both speaker and lis- tener. For example, while playing, the child rotates between speaker and lis- tener responding in what some refer to as imaginative play, c) Naming. Simply by hearing others tact objects or stimuli, the individual can learn words as a lis- tener and then use them as a speaker, or learn words as a speaker and then use them as a listener. This stage, or functional verbal capability, provides the means to expand form and function with minimal and incidental exposure. Individuals who have reading repertoires can use written text to supply them- selves with useful, entertaining, and necessary responses to setting events and environmental contingencies that extend their sensory experiences. The reader may use the verbal material without the time constraints that control a

speaker-listener relationship. The writer's advice is under the reader's control without the writer (who functions as a verbal governor) being present. Reader behavior can occur despite time, distance, or accessibility to the writer, unlike listener behavior that requires that a speaker is accessible to a listener. A competent writer may control environmental contingencies through the mediation of a reader across seconds or centuries, in the immediate vicinity of a reader or on a remote continent. This stage represents an expansion of speaker repertoires, but a listener need not be present at the time or at the same location as the writer.

As writers can read their own writing from the perspective of an eventual audi- ence, they grow increasingly independent of reliance on substitute or teaching audiences (e.g., teachers, supervisors, and colleagues). A more finished and effective behavior-evoking repertoire provides the writer with wide-ranging control over environmental contingencies such that time and distance spaces can be virtually eliminated. Writing can be geared to different audiences with- out immediate responses from the target audience.

A sophisticated self-editor whose behavior is governed by the verbal expertise derived from formal approaches to problem-solving (e.g., verbal communities that use the methods of science, logic, and authority); they can solve complex and new problems in a progressively independent fashion. Problems are char- acterized with precise verbal descriptions. Verbal descriptions occasion other verbal behavior that can, in turn, direct the person's actions to solve a particu- lar problem. The verbal community that uses methods of problem solving bases their verbal expertise on methods that result in effective operations.

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