As the science of ABA evolves, improvements to the application of its principles are carefully researched and published in peer reviewed journals. In the past, most ABA programs implemented for children with autism were based on the work published by Ivar Lovaas in the 1980’s. However, during those years Jack Michael, PHD., Mark Sundberg, PHD., and James Partington, PHD., among others in the field, focused on researching B.F. Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior and its effectiveness of teaching language skills. This research has improved ABA programs by emphasizing the important elements in language acquisition previously ignored in other types of programming. In ABA programs that incorporate Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior, teaching specific components of expressive language (mands, tacts, intraverbals, among others) are taught first. Specifically mand training is a large part of the initial stages of teaching language skills. Mand training teaches the child a functional communication system. This may be with vocal language or sign language. One of the primary premises of an ABA program that incorporates Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior is that the meaning of a word is found in its function not in the word itself, or its form. By not taking the function of language into account you often end up with a child who may be able to receptively identify or label hundreds of objects and pictures but never uses them in a functional way or demonstrates the concept of the object or picture. You can also find yourself with a learner who may imitate hundreds of words but never spontaneously requests them in the natural environment.
Verbal Behavior Terms
- Mand: Requesting wants and needs
- Tact: Labeling or describing objects
- Receptive repertoire: Non-verbally following directions, discriminating between pictures and objects
- Imitation: Repeating, copying what was observed
- Echoic: Vocal imitation
- Intraverbal: Verbally (or using sign language) responding to the verbal behavior of others
Obviously you cannot teach all these components at once, but with some of these skills in the child’s repertoire it is possible to build all of these various language components earlier than once thought. Copied from the The Race School
