BA440 Unit 7 Verbal Behavior Paper Example

She Could Name the Juice but Not Ask for It: A BA440 Unit 7 Verbal Behavior Paper

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

BA440: Behavior Intervention

Unit 7 Verbal Behavior Paper

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The writer, the agency, the family and every figure are composite and illustrative; the articles and books cited are real.

A Puzzle at the Refrigerator

Ava is seven and has autism. After the functional communication training described in the previous unit, she signed for the swing and used picture cards for juice and her tablet. Her speech therapist at school reported that Ava could also say about fifteen words when shown pictures, including "juice," "dog" and "car." Her parents were puzzled. If Ava could say "juice," why did she still cry at the refrigerator when she was thirsty and her card was not nearby?

Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior offers an answer.

Skinner's Verbal Operants

Skinner (1957) classified verbal behavior by its function, not its form. The same word can belong to different verbal operants depending on what controls it and what reinforces it. A mand is a request controlled by a motivating operation, such as thirst, and reinforced by what is requested: Ava says "juice" because she is thirsty and gets juice. A tact names something in the environment and is reinforced socially: Ava says "juice" when she sees a picture of juice and receives praise. An echoic repeats what someone else says. An intraverbal responds to someone else's words without repeating them, as in answering "What do you drink?" with "juice."

Sundberg and Michael (2001) argued that Skinner's analysis has particular benefits for teaching children with autism. One is the finding that verbal operants are often functionally independent: learning a word as a tact does not guarantee that a child will use it as a mand. Another is the emphasis on the mand as an early teaching target, because mands are reinforced by things the child wants, give the child some control over the environment and can replace problem behavior that serves the same purpose. They also stressed the role of motivating operations: mands are best taught when the child actually wants the item.

At school, "juice" was a tact for praise; at the refrigerator, Ava needed a mand for juice.

Why Ava's Words Did Not Transfer

Ava's school words had been taught as tacts, with pictures and praise, during structured lessons. They had never been reinforced by getting the item, and they had never been taught when she was thirsty or wanted something. According to Sundberg and Michael's account of functional independence, that is exactly why "juice" did not appear at the refrigerator.

The Program: Mands First

My supervising behavior analyst designed a program that followed Skinner's analysis. Mands came first. Using the items Ava already requested with signs and cards, I began pairing the sign or card with a spoken word at the moment she wanted the item. When she reached for the juice card, I said "juice" and waited a second. Any vocal approximation, at first even "ju," produced juice immediately. Because her thirst was the motivating operation, I timed juice sessions after outdoor play, when she was most likely to want a drink, rather than right after lunch.

Within three weeks, Ava said "ju" or "juice" for juice on most occasions without a card, and "sing" for swing. Her parents reported the first spoken request at the refrigerator on a Saturday, which her father recorded on his phone and sent to the whole family.

Echoics to Support New Mands

Mands for new items required a way to prompt new words. Cooper et al. (2020) describe echoic training as a common bridge: a child who will repeat a word can be prompted to say it, and the echoic prompt can then be faded so that the word comes under control of the motivating operation. Ava's echoic repertoire was limited, so I practiced echoics with high-interest sounds and words during play, such as "whee" on the swing and "go" before pushing her, reinforcing each repetition with the activity. Within a month she echoed many single syllables, which made it easier to prompt new mands such as "more," "open" and "help."

Tacts in Their Own Right

Tacts matter too, because naming the world brings social interaction. But following the principle of functional independence, the program taught tacts separately and with social reinforcement. During walks, I pointed to things Ava liked, such as dogs and trucks, and praised her enthusiastically for naming them. Her school words began appearing on walks, which suggests that the tacts taught at school were now generalizing to new settings.

Intraverbals Later

Intraverbals, such as answering questions and filling in songs, are harder and depend on a foundation of mands, tacts and echoics. The plan delays systematic intraverbal training until later in the year, though Ava's mother has started pausing in a favorite song to let her fill in the last word, which she did for the first time in week six.

Teaching the Family to Spot Motivation

Because mands depend on motivation, the best teaching moments happen outside my sessions: in the bath, at the car door, when a brother has the remote. I taught Ava's parents and brothers a simple routine. When Ava reaches for, looks at or fusses near something she wants, pause, hold the item where she can see it, say the word once and wait three seconds before helping. Her older brother turned it into a game at breakfast, holding the cereal box and waiting for "o-pen." The family's opportunities soon outnumbered mine many times over, and Ava's new mands appeared first with the people who asked her for them most often.

Coordination With School

The speech therapist and I met to share our approaches. She agreed to add mand opportunities to her sessions, such as placing a favorite toy in a clear container Ava had to ask to open, and I agreed to support the tacts she was teaching. Coordinating made it more likely that Ava's words would function across settings.

Results

After two months, Ava used twelve spoken or approximated mands at home without prompts, compared with none at the start. Her signs and cards remained available, and she used them when her words were not understood. Crying at the refrigerator stopped almost entirely. Tacts on walks increased from two per walk to about eight.

Conclusion

Ava could say "juice" as a tact but not as a mand, a pattern explained by Skinner's analysis of verbal operants and the functional independence Sundberg and Michael describe. A program that taught mands first under real motivating operations, used echoics as a bridge, as Cooper and colleagues describe, and taught tacts in their own right gave Ava spoken requests at home and more words on walks.

References

Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied behavior analysis (3rd ed.). Pearson.

Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Sundberg, M. L., & Michael, J. (2001). The benefits of Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior for children with autism. Behavior Modification, 25(5), 698-724. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145445501255003