One addition to our newsletter this year will be some definitions of terms we use most often in ABA. We know we use a lot of lingo and we want to help families understand it better. All of these terms will also be on our website in a glossary, so you can check them out anytime.
Last week we defined two terms: Verbal Operants and Tact, which is one of the verbal operants.
This week, we'll keep the definition of verbal operants for you to refer to, and expand to include three other verbal operants: mand, intraverbal, and echoic.
Verbal Behavior
B.F. Skinner published a book titled Verbal Behavior in 1957. This book provided classification for language and a description of how it is developed, which included a listing of what Skinner called verbal operants.
The verbal operant is the unit of analysis of verbal behavior, and it defines the functional relation between a type of responding and motivating variables, discriminative stimuli, and consequences.
That is a fancy way to say that Skinner liked to look at language by the FUNCTION of the word, not by the form.
For example, a child might say the word, "cookie" for a variety of reasons:
- He might say "cookie" when he sees one (labeling what he sees)
- He might say "cookie" when you ask "What's your favorite treat?"
- He might say "cookie" when he wants to eat a cookie, or wants you to give him a cookie
- He might say "cookie" after you say "cookie" (repeating you)
As parents, we often say our child "knows" a new word when hear him say it, no matter what the circumstances - that would be defining language by its form. If my son says "cookie" one day when he sees one, I may say he knows that word now.
With typically developing children, they quickly begin using their new word under a wide variety of circumstances, with very little specific teaching. With children diagnosed with Autism, they don't automatically begin using a new word under different circumstances. Often they need specific teaching to use that word under all the different circumstances where they might need it.
As behavior analysts who utilize Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior, we look at all the different circumstances where the child uses the word "cookie," like we listed above. And we focus on teaching all those different uses or functions of the word cookie, not just on the form of the word or on being able to physically say the word.
It's this attention to detail that allows us to help your children learn so many different ways to use language, and it's a huge part of what we do daily.
A mand is a type of verbal operant that is most simply understood as a request. A mand is when one person says something and the expected response or reinforcement for speaking is an action on the part of the other person.
For example, when your child says "cookie" because he is hoping to get to eat a cookie, that's a mand. When a child on a swing says "push me" in order to get someone to give him a push, that's a mand. Sometimes mands are a little trickier, like when I say "I sure am thirsty" in the hopes that someone will bring me a drink of water, but it's still a mand. We also teach mands by using other forms of communication, including exchanging a picture, using sign language, or using a tablet or other device with a communication program on it.
One of the earliest forms of manding that we see in all children is crying. Babies learn quickly to cry when they need to eat or need a diaper change, or just want to be near us. We emphasize mands for every child at Strive, because this is the type of language that is most reinforcing for our children to engage in - when communicating leads to what you want, you're more willing to do it more!
An intraverbal is a type of verbal operant where the response is different from the verbal stimulus that evoked it. That's a fancy way to say that an intraverbal is a response to something that someone says where the speaker does not just repeat what was said.
For example, when I say "How are you today?" and you answer, "Fine", your answer is an intraverbal. With our children, we teach a lot of different kinds of intraverbals like fill-ins: a therapist says, "Something you wear on your feet are..." and the child responds, "Shoes." Or we teach answering simple questions like "How old are you?" or "What's your name?" For many children, these skills are the beginning of back and forth conversations.
Finally, an echoic is when a child repeats a word or phrase. We can use a child's echoic skills to help prompt an answer to a different type of question - like the intraverbals above. If a child is able to imitate what we say, we can use that to teach him to say "shoes" after the fill-in statement above.
Sometimes with children with Autism, we see something called echolalia. This is another way of describing a child who is repeating words or phrases. With children with Autism, you may hear that word or phrase repeated immediately after you say it, or it may be quite a bit later. We are encouraged when we hear echolalia, as it's a great start to more appropriate language!
