CHAPTER

1 Verbal Behavior Analysis

and Verbal Development

The presence of verbal communities indicates that human beings may be

predisposed to behave verbally. But a predisposition does not insure that the
behavior will occur, and its occurrence, if it occurs, does not explain how forms of
that behavior are shaped by an extant community.
Vargas, E. A., as cited in Skinner, B. E, 1992, p. xiv

Introduction to Verbal Behavior Analysis Research in Verbal Behavior Analysis

Relationship between Verbal Behavior Developmental Milestones in Verbal
Analysis and Basic and Applied Behavior Behavior
Analysis Summary
Protocols for Inducing New Verbal Endnotes
Capabilities
Selecting a Verbal Topography

W h e n we are children, we learn to communicate by discovering how language

works for us. That is, when we learn that words can be used to easily attain objects or
gain attention, objects acquire names. These words become essential tools, and these
tools are behaviors that affect both listeners and speakers. They are a distinctive kind
of behavior that requires a distinctive treatment, and we use them to communicate to
others and mediate our world through the action of others. Verbal behavior is the cor-
nerstone of human learning. For most children, verbal behavior seems to be acquired
with little apparent effort and becomes the means for them to operate their world. As
their world becomes more complex, the variety and forms of verbal behavior expand to
meet more complex functions.
The words of the author Gabriel Garcia Marquez (2003) might best describe the
process through which young children learn to use words to control their world: "The
world was so new that there were no names for many things; so all the people could do
was point" (p. 7). For toddlers, the world is so new that they have no names for things;
so all they can do is point and then listen for an adult's response. After pointing, they

1
2 CHAPTER 1

repeat the names for objects and receive adult confirmation. Soon children learn to
ask, "What's that?" instead of pointing. By doing so, they can identify the things to
which they could previously only point. In this fashion, as things in their world
become more distinguishable, they learn about their world. Without the names of
objects, they cannot share the things in their world with others who constitute their
verbal community. While typically developing children seem to acquire the complex
verbal behavior of speaking and listening effortlessly, this is actually a result of thou-
sands of language interactions with their parents and caretakers (Greenwood, Hart,
Walker, & Risley, 1994; Hart & Risley, 1995). As children learn verbal behavior from
their parents and caretakers, they evolve into verbally and socially capable individuals.
In cases in which this development is thwarted by either native or environmental
factors, critical learning opportunities and developmental steps do not occur. Native
factors may include genetic causes that make learning to verbalize difficult, while envi-
ronmental factors may include a lack of necessary experiences to develop verbal behav-
ior. In some cases, we characterize a child's verbal development as "minimally
delayed," while in other cases, it is described as being "severely delayed"; in the latter
case it does not develop at all without extraordinary and highly intensive instructional
efforts. However, the presence of deficits—whether minimal or severe—does not nec-
essarily mean that verbal repertoires are not possible; rather, special instructional skills
may be needed to establish them.

Introduction to Verbal Behavior Analysis

Verbal behavior analysis is a subfield within basic and applied behavior analysis that is
devoted to identifying and researching sources and instructional procedures that pro-
duce functional verbal repertoires when they are missing. It is based on B. F. Skinner's
(1957) Verbal Behavior, a theoretical account of the functions of language or the
effects that a speaker has on a listener. For example, instead of pouring a cup of water,
a speaker can ask for it by pointing or talking, and a listener can respond by giving it
to them; this is a request function or mand by the speaker whose response is rein-

XEXXBOX X • 1
Defining Verbal Behavior

Verbal behavior is behavior whose reinforcement is mediated by another person. It is

concerned with the function of language—defined as the effect that a speaker has on a
listener—and is derived from the science of behavior and from its applications. Since our
focus is on the application of the verbal behavior theory to research, we draw on
research-based applications in both verbal behavior and applied behavior analysis as part
of verbal behavior analysis. Verbal behavior analysis is a subfield within basic and
applied behavior analysis devoted to researching and identifying sources and instruc-
tional procedures that produce functional verbal repertoires when they are missing.
Verbal Behavior Analysis and Verbal D e v e l o p m e n t 3

forced by a listener delivering the water. The speaker behavior governs a listener who
then delivers the water or other reinforcing consequence specified by the request.
Skinner identified six speaker verbal functions, referred to as elementary verbal
operants. We will refer to research in verbal behavior and its application as verbal
behavior analysis.
Verbal behavior analysis is the joint application of advanced research in verbal
behavior, the basic science of behavior, and applied behavior analysis to determine the
environmental source of verbal behavior and the application of the combined findings
to develop functional verbal repertoires. This text uses procedures and findings from
experiments and applications that were conducted with several hundred children that
provide guidelines for developing verbal behavior (Greer & Keohane, 2005; Greer &
Ross, 2004; Sundberg, 1998). Table 1.1 defines and provides examples of the six ele-
mentary verbal functions described by Skinner, along with key terms from applied
behavior analysis to which readers may refer.
The processes of analyzing language by its function are different from the
processes for analyzing its structure or parts of speech, as in linguistics. To differenti-
ate this approach from more traditional treatments, Skinner called it verbal behavior
because it was a treatment of the behavior function of language per se. While he did
not refer to individuals who were lacking developmentally appropriate language
(although aphasia, echolalia, and palilalia occurred frequently in his examples), ver-
bal behavior was ideally suited for identifying verbal developmental capabilities and
for designing curricula for those with and without communication deficits (Skinner,
1957). In fact, the ability of educators to reduce verbal disabilities has, in part,
advanced significantly because of research based on the work of Skinner, despite early
criticisms of his theory by some linguists who adhered solely to an innate source
(Chomsky, 1959; Chomsky & Place, 2000; MacCorquodale, 1970).
Verbal behavior analysis provides environmental or teaching interventions to
establish functional verbal repertoires when they are missing. Verbal does not only
mean vocal; rather, verbal includes any topography that results in a verbal function.
Language can have many different forms or topographies such as gestures, sign-
language systems, clicks, or acoustically different vocal topographies (i.e., different
languages) (Culotta & Hanson, 2004; Deacon, 1997). However, the function of lan-
guage or use as a tool and the sources of this function—and not its form—make many
individual and cultural achievements possible.
Children typically learn verbal functions through the efforts of their parents as
part of their socialization. In cases where non-verbal or vocal disabilities exist, but ver-
bal functions are present in a person's repertoire, technology and alternative means of
communication can compensate for disabilities. However, until fairly recently, when
verbal functions were lacking, there were fewer ways to compensate for them, and the
individual who was non-verbal remained very dependent on others. Such children,
who often have native disabilities, may not become verbal despite efforts of even the
most diligent of parents. To become verbal, they require extraordinary efforts using
procedures such as those made possible by a science of verbal behavior or verbal
behavior analysis. These procedures make it possible for many more children to
become social as they learn to manage and organize the arbitrary sounds, signs, or
4 CHAPTER 1

TABLE 1.1 Definitions of Elementary Verbal Functions

Term Definition Example

Echoics Hear-say responses. Vocal verbal operants under the A teacher says, "Cookie"
control of verbal stimuli. They have point-to-point and a student repeats by
correspondence (topographical similarity) and formal saying, "Cookie."
similarity (are in the same sense mode) as the verbal
stimuli that control them. Maintained by reinforcement
(automatic or other types of reinforcement).
Mands Conditions of deprivation or annoying conditions. A hungry student says, "I
Result in speaking in the presence of a listener who then want the cookie, please" and
mediates the situation. They can consist of many a teacher gives her the
different response topographies (signs, gestures, Morse cookie. A child in need of a
code, speaking devices, and pictures), which specify the bathroom requests assis-
reinforcer delivered by a listener. tance, or is cold and asks for
a sweater or jumper.
Tacts See-say responses. Verbal operants under the control A young child sees an air-
of a prior controlling stimulus (i.e., a picture, a person, plane and says, "Airplane."
or an object). Can be of many different response A parent says, "Yes, that's an
topographies, and are reinforced by generalized airplane. You're so smart!
reinforcers such as attention or confirmation. It's very noisy!"
Intraverbals/ Hear-say responses. Verbal operants under the control One speaker says, "How are
Sequelics of verbal stimuli. They do not have point-to-point you?" and another speaker
correspondence with the controlling verbal stimulus, says, "I'm fine." A person
and can occur as exchanges between two speakers or as says, "DEF" after saying,
part of a verbal chain. "ABC." "My telephone
number i s . . . . " "Two plus
two is four."
Autoclitics See-say or hear-say responses. Verbal behavior that A child says, "Big car,
modifies the effects of elementary verbal operants please" and a teacher gives
(mands, tacts, echoics, and intraverbals) on a listener. her a big car instead of a
"I wouldn't tell you this if I were not your friend." More little one. "Big" and
specifically narrows or qualifies the effect of verbal "please" modify the mand
behavior on an audience. Also acts to minimize aversive for a car by affecting the
reactions from a listener as in saying, ''''Please pass the teacher's response.
bread," or "I want the big cookie with the chocolate
frosting."
Textual See-print-say responses. Verbal behavior under the A student sees the word cat
Responding control of printed words. Skinner called this textual and says, "cat."
behavior.

symbols that affect listeners in their community. How to apply these advances is the
subject of this text.
Researchers from neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, and other disciplines
study various parts of language, and verbal behavior analytic research is not in compe-
tition with these disciplines, contrary to what some may believe. For example, some
 Verbal B e h a v i o r A n a l y s i s and Verbal D e v e l o p m e n t 5

neuroscientists study relations between language and the brain or other neurological
processes. Such research has shown physiological correlations between the behaviors
of speaking and listening and those parts of the brain that are illuminated in Magnetic
Resonance Imagery (MRI) when one is speaking or listening. This research identifies
relationships between behavior outside of the skin (behaviors such as speaking or
writing that are observable to another person) and behavior beneath the skin (behav-
iors such as an electronic brain impulse or blood flow that are only detectable through
an MRI or other instrumentation). However, observing the brain physiology that is
correlated with speaking and listening does not explain the source of verbal functions
any more than the underlying muscle movement involved in hitting a baseball explains
the hitter's skill; rather, in most cases, events occurring in the individual's environment
must be observed in order to identify the functions.
Clearly, there are genetic and physiological factors involved in the production of
language, and without them, language would not occur. However, unless certain
behavioral interactions with the environment occur and those environmental events
can affect the individual's behavior, verbal functions of language are often not possible,
even when the physical structure is developed. That is, one may say a word and the
corresponding part of the brain may show change. However, if the word does not
function to effectively affect the behavior of a listener in the interest of the speaker, the
topography is present, but the function is absent. Moreover, current evidence shows
that even when damaged physiological structures exist (i.e., damaged neurons), induc-
ing verbal functions through intense environmental interventions can apparently
improve them (Greenfield, 1997).
We believe that while the use and study of both physiological and environmental
responses are important, studying the conditions under which verbal behavior is emit-
ted, and how to effectively teach it, is a separate and necessary science from both lin-
guistics and the neuroscience of language. Verbal behavior analysis is concerned with
environmental interventions and, as such, provides the basis for a science of teaching
that identifies relations between behavior and the environment. It is a source for how
to (a) provide effective teaching interventions, (b) motivate or manage verbal behavior,
and (c) provide missing verbal capabilities. Providing missing verbal capabilities
allows students to progress in their verbal development, but to do so, we must know
the function of verbal behavior, or how and why it is emitted and we must know its
environmental sources (Donahoe & Palmer, 1992; Pinker, 1999).

Relation between Verbal Behavior Analysis

and Basic and Applied Behavior Analysis
Early on, the work of Lovaas and other behavior analysts showed that there were
extraordinary training procedures that could be successful with some children with lan-
guage delays (Guess, Keogh, & Sailor, 1978; Lovaas, 1977). However, obtaining gener-
alization of trained language to regular, everyday settings proved to be problematic.
Subsequently, behavior analysts placed greater emphasis on teaching communication
beyond the training setting. This movement was characterized as either incidental
language training or naturalistic language interventions (Hart & Rogers-
CHAPTER 1

1
Warren, 1978; Warren, McQuarter, & Rogers-Warren, 1984). This development
emphasized the importance of capturing naturally occurring motivational conditions
to obtain instances of speaker behavior (e.g., children asking for toys on a shelf that are
inaccessible to them).
Beginning in the late 1980s, a few behavior analysts began to incorporate Skin-
ner's theory of verbal behavior within incidental teaching by using procedures called
establishing operations, which increased the number of teaching opportunities in
the natural environment (Michael, 1993b; Sundberg, Michael, Partington, & Sund-
berg, 1996). From this developed a substantial program of research in verbal behavior
analysis that identified ways to join Skinner's verbal behavior to the motivational com-
ponents of incidental teaching, resulting in many more teaching opportunities than
were possible by incidental teaching alone (Greer & Keohane, 2005; Greer & Ross,
2004). The science that made all of these innovations possible is the basic science of
behavior and applied behavior analysis.
Verbal behavior analysis is a subfield of the science of behavior and its applica-
tions to human endeavors. Application of the basic principles and procedures to all
behaviors constitutes applied behavior analysis (Bushel & Baer, 1994; Kazdin, 1978,
Sulzer-Azaroff, Drabman, Greer, Hall, Iwata & O'Leary, 1988). Applied behavior
analysis is the systematic application of scientific procedures derived from principles of
behavior. The procedures are then used to change socially significant problems in such
a way that changes in the behavior can be attributed to the procedures that were used.
It has existed since the 1960s as an application of findings from the basic science of
behavior. Over the years, sophisticated applications of applied behavior analysis have
made significant differences in the education, performance, and well-being of typically
developing students from preschool through university levels, children and adults with
a range of disabilities, parents, teachers, psychologists, employees, employers, as well
as in the education of educators. The oftentimes dramatic and socially significant
effectiveness of behavior analysis is based on a rigorous set of scientific procedures.
We refer to findings from applied behavior analysis as tactics or environmental
interventions. Successful implementation of basic scientific principles requires that
different tactics be used for different individuals, which further produces learning or
new relationships between behaviors and the environment. The basic and applied sci-
entists study the behavior of individuals and not of groups. The role of applied
behavior analysts in education, medicine, therapy, and organizational behavior man-
agement is to select the appropriate research-based tactic needed at a given time for
the child or client from the growing research base. Continuous measurement is its dis-
tinguishing characteristic along with the visual displays (graphs) and the continuous
use of tested, scientific procedures. These procedures are fitted to individuals, so that
if one tactic does not work, others are implemented until success is achieved. That is,
research-based tactics derived from basic principles are then applied using scientific
procedures to test their application to a specific child.
We based our process of fitting specific tactics to individual students on four
areas of research in behavior analysis. First, research on the basic principles of behav-
ior identified fundamental environment behavior relations. Second, individual tactics
from the applied research were derived from efforts to apply the basic principles to
Verbal Behavior A n a l y s i s and Verbal D e v e l o p m e n t 7

socially and educationally significant problems. For example, applied researchers

developed tactics such as token economies, praise and ignoring, simultaneous stimulus
prompts, response cards, fast rate instruction or "fluency" training, picture exchange
systems, learn units, class wide peer tutoring, extinction training, Personalized System
of Instruction (PSI), programmed instruction via computers using learn units
(Emurian, 2004), reinforcement of academic accuracy to reduce problem behavior,
and group contingencies to name a few tactics. Third, educational behavior analysis
developed decision protocols to identify given tactics for given students at specific
stages in their learning (Greer, 2002). These tactics included, for example, decision
protocols to identify the source of a learning problem (Keohane & Greer, 2005),
fidelity or accuracy of instruction using the Teacher Performance Rate Accuracy Pro-
cedure (TPRA; Albers & Greer, 1991; Bahadourian, Tarn, Greer, & Rosseau, 2006;
Emurian, 2004; Greer & McDonough, 1999; Selinski, Greer, & Lodhi, 1992), and
supervisor rate measures (Greer, Keohane, & Healy, 2002). Finally, when we applied
tactics to individual children, we also tested the effectiveness of that tactic of the par-
ticular child's instruction or behavior management problem. If the tactic was not effec-
tive, the practitioner returned to the decision protocol procedure (Keohane & Greer,
2
2005) until success was achieved.
Over the last few years, the use of these four levels of scientific application led to
the identification of missing verbal developmental cusps—our verbal capabilities
described throughout this text—and to the development of research-based protocols
to induce many of these verbal capabilities when they are missing. This work, which
grew out of verbal behavior analysis and the building of a science of teaching, led to
even more sophisticated teaching procedures. This is the subject matter of this text.
There are over 200 tested tactics from the research literature that are derived
from the basic principles of behavior, which well-trained professionals can apply to
individual learning or behavior problems (Greer, 2002). Many of them involve chang-
ing behaviors that are not functional for the individual or society, and many involve

TEXTBOX 1*2
Levels of Science Used to Develop Verbal Behavior Analysis

• Step 1. Identification of the basic principles of behavior

• Step 2. Identification of tactics to individualize applications of the basic principles
to specific children (the building of a science of individualized treatment)
• Step 3. The development of scientific procedures to locate the source of behavior
problems or learning difficulties in order to determine those tactics that would be
most effective for a given child, a system to ensure fidelity of treatment
• Step 4. Using scientific procedures in the actual teaching process to test whether
the tactic selected in Step 3 works for a particular child, and if not, returning to
Step 2
• Step 5. The identification of, and development of, protocols to induce verbal
development capabilities (a new step contributed by verbal behavior analysis)
8 CHAPTER 1

learning new behavior-environment relations. This process of "fitting" the best tactic
to either (a) a behavior management problem or (b) a particular learning problem is
the heart of individualized treatment and education. This is one of the significant
advances in the applied science over the last 20 years (Greer, 2002). Research suggests
that professionals who apply such scientific and tactical expertise produce better out-
comes for their students, children, and other clients (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 1987,
2007; Delquadri, Greenwood, Wharton, Carta, & Hall, 1986; Emurian, 2004; Engel-
mann & Carnie, 1991; Goldiamond & Dyrud, 1966; Greer, 1994a,b; Greer, Keohane,
& Healy, 2002; Keohane & Greer, 2005; Sulzer-Azaroff, Drabman, Greer, Hall, Iwata,
3
& O'Leary, 1988; Ingham & Greer, 1992).

Protocols for Inducing New Verbal Capabilities

Tactics developed in the literature over the last 65 years were mainly concerned
with how to modify existing environmental influences on behavior in applied set-
tings; determining what behaviors to teach was relegated to traditional curriculum
or "therapy" approaches. Verbal behavior theory and research added to the "what"
for teaching communicative and other complex curricular goals. This work has
provided a scientific basis for what verbal behavior to teach and procedures for how
to teach it. This contribution has dramatically increased possibilities, especially for
children who cannot communicate. Research in verbal behavior also shows that
those who receive behavior analytic instruction incorporating verbal behavior tactics
and strategies will have more educationally significant outcomes and represents still
another advance in teaching as a science (Chu, 1998; Donley & Greer, 1993; Greer,
Yuan, & Gautreaux, 2003; Greer, Stolfi, Chavez-Brown, & Rivera-Valdez, 2005;
Jadlowski, 2000; Karmali, 2000; Karmali, Greer, Nuzzolo-Gomez, Ross, & Rivera-
Valdes, 2005; Lodhi & Greer, 1989; Madho, 1997; Marsico, 1998; Meincke, Keohane,
Gifaldi, & Greer, 2003; Nuzzolo-Gomez & Greer, 2004; Ross, 1995; Ross & Greer,
2003; Schwartz, 1994; Spradlin, 1985; Sundberg, Michael, Partington, & Sundberg,
1996; Tsiouri & Greer, 2003; Twyman, 1996a, b; Williams & Greer, 1993; Yoon,
1998).
Behavior analytic research that examines the induction of capabilities has led to
the advancement of a technology and science of individualized treatment and educa-
tion (Gilic, 2005; Greer, Stolfi, Chavez-Brown, Rivera-Valdes, 2005; Greer & Keo-
hane, 2005; Greer, Yuan, & Gautreaux, 2005; Nuzzolo-Gomez & Greer, 2004; Ross &
Greer, 2003). This technology of individualized treatment expands the tactics identi-
fied in the entire body of applied behavior analysis that can be applied to individuals as
needed. The new advances provide the necessary foundational verbal capabilities
(Greer & Keohane, 2005). Providing the means to apply these protocols for inducing
verbal capabilities is the objective of this text.
Some research from the applied and basic sciences of behavior is concerned with
variables that affect what we have already learned (i.e., our performance), while some is
concerned with building new repertoires, teaching or inducing new capabilities. Both
Verbal B e h a v i o r A n a l y s i s and Verbal D e v e l o p m e n t 9

are needed in the process of working with children or with the staff who work with
children. Teachers and applied behavior analysts need to know how to manage behav-
ior appropriately based on the science and good ethical practice. However, the por-
tions of the basic and applied sciences that are most applicable to this text concern the
development of new verbal operants and what we will later identify as higher order
operants or new capabilities. Teaching new verbal operants is important because
when children are missing them, then they are missing verbal capabilities. Recent
work in verbal behavior analysis has developed procedures to bring about or to induce
verbal capabilities when they are missing (Keohane & Greer, 2005). Once children
who are missing them acquire these capabilities, then they can also acquire operants
they were not capable of learning. In many cases, without them children cannot
advance in their verbal development. Textbox 1.3 further explains the term verbal
capabilities.

TEXTBOX 1.3
Defining Capability

A c o m m o n definition o f a capability i s " a t a l e n t o r a b i l i t y that h a s p o t e n t i a l for d e v e l o p -

m e n t o r u s e " ( A m e r i c a n H e r i t a g e D i c t i o n a r y , 2006). W h i l e capability i s f r e q u e n t l y u s e d
i n p s y c h o l o g y t o refer t o c e r t a i n c o n s t r u c t s o r n e u r a l a n d p h y s i o l o g i c a l c a p a c i t i e s , w e u s e
t h e w o r d capability t o d e s c r i b e t h e a c q u i s i t i o n o f a n a b i l i t y t h a t a l l o w s o n e t o l e a r n c o m -
ponents of a previously inaccessible repertoire. For example, w h e n students lack speech,
t h e y c a n n o t l e a r n v o c a l v e r b a l functions from t h e i r t e a c h e r s o r p e e r s . H o w e v e r , o n c e
t h e y a c q u i r e s p e e c h , t h e y can l e a r n v o c a l m a n d s , tacts, a n d o t h e r verbal functions. I n
other words, w h e n a child acquires the capability of speech, then multiple, new verbal
operants can be taught.
W h i l e t h e t e r m capability h a s n o t b e e n t r a d i t i o n a l l y u s e d i n b e h a v i o r a n a l y s i s , t h e
t e r m behavioral cusps h a s b e e n u s e d to d e s c r i b e a s i m i l a r p h e n o m e n o n . N o v a k a n d
P e l a e z (2004) w r i t e t h e f o l l o w i n g :

. . .Rosales and Baer (Baer & Rosales-Ruiz, 1998; Rosales-Ruiz & Baer, 1996; Rosales-
Ruiz & Baer, 1997) introduced the concept of behavioral cusps to describe changes in
person-environment interactions that enable multiple new interactions. Cusps are behav-
iors that have significant and far-reaching implications for further developmental stages.
T h a t is, a behavioral cusp is a new behavior, such as walking, that because it has occurred,
enables the explosive development of many new interactions, such as social behaviors,
exploratory behaviors, and a host of others. Another behavioral cusp is fluency in reading
because it opens pathways to an enormous number of other developments. So the fluent
reader can follow directions to use a computer program; in turn, this computer program
allows that person to get on the Internet; in turn, this allows him or her to buy a ticket to
Tahiti; which in turn, allows the discovery of a new culture, and so forth. T h i s is just one
branch of behaviors that are enabled by the development of a behavioral cusp. Cusps also
enable many other "branches" as well. T h i s is why they are important, (pp. 6 8 - 6 9 )
10 CHAPTER 1

Selecting a Verbal Topography: Linguistic

and Verbal Behavior Contributions
Thus far we have avoided the term language. Language is not behavior per se; at a
rudimentary level, language is a kind of dictionary or lexicon for the verbal topogra-
phies upon which a given community agrees. Lexicons consist of the "word stocks" of
a particular language, or its meaningful units (identified as morphemes in linguistics;
m
Oxford English Dictionary, 2 'Edition, VII, pp. 876-877). Dictionaries or lexicons define
words with other words. In addition, structural linguistics identifies the basic structure
of language such as the morpheme or the phoneme. These are the structural compo-
nents of language and are the verbal practices of a particular verbal community. Con-
versely, verbal behavior provides a functional analysis of language defined as how the
speaker affects the listener, or how the listener is affected by the speaker. The function
of language is the province of verbal behavior, but much of structural linguistics is used
as a basis for the study of verbal as behavior per se (Bloomfield, 1961). In his
Contingencies of Reinforcement, Skinner (1969) described the relationship between ver-
bal behavior and linguistics:

Skinner . . . attributes to Bloomfield [a linguist whose basic units were used by Skinner
as a point of departure] the main effort [in the field of linguistics] in the direction of
finding behavioral explanations to . . . psychological ones (as cited in Matos &
De Lourdes, 2006, p. 97). Both linguistics and verbal behavior analysis are needed in
the broad study of language broadly construed—each for different aspects of language.
In the same way that the linguist does not possess the proper methodology to study
the behavioral process responsible for installing speaker and listener repertoires . . . the
behavior analyst does not master the proper methodology to analyze and describe the
practices of the verbal community (p. 100). However, starting from the linguist's speci-
fication of the contents to be taught, behavior analysts are capable of using the proce-
dures and techniques from our science for training the relations between the
environment and behavior—that is, for the process of teaching, (p. 102)

Words are arbitrary, that is, there is no natural word for a given phenomenon,
they are simply the practices of a given community. We could click, sign, whistle, or
emit any number of behaviors for a particular communicative function and these have
basic structural units. While teaching children to acquire functions of language is a
major focus of verbal behavior analysis, function requires topography. As noted by
Skinner (1957) and others, verbal does not mean vocal; rather "verbal" includes any
topography that is used for a verbal function. By verbal behavior, Skinner meant com-
municative behavior in all of its forms, which includes speaking, sign language or ges-
tures, pictures or symbols, Morse code, and electronic speaking devices.
Throughout the text, we will use the term speaker regardless of the topography
with which one "speaks." Thus, speaker refers generically to one who uses vocal
behavior, signs, pictures, or electronic vocal transducers to govern the behavior of oth-
ers. Perhaps, the best way to describe our use of "speaker" is to define it as someone
who can govern or direct the behavior of others using various topographies of verbal
Verbal Behavior A n a l y s i s and Verbal D e v e l o p m e n t 11

behavior or language as a tool. Hence, many of the operations for teaching described
herein can be used regardless of the communicative topography taught. Moreover,
since verbal behavior analysis is the study and application of verbal functions, by
necessity, it must also include the listener role, or someone who is affected by the ver-
bal behavior of others. Thus, verbal behavior analysis includes verbal functions for
governing the behavior of others as a speaker, and for being directed or governed by
the verbal behavior of others as a listener.
Although sophisticated gesturing topographies exist (e.g., sign languages used in
Deaf communities), and some research shows that children who used alternative com-
munication systems also developed speech when both are used together, our preferred
topography for children with language delays who are not deaf is vocal verbal behav-
ior, because it enhances our ability to more easily advance the child's verbal potential.
There are several reasons why vocal behavior is our topography of first choice. First, it
is the most easily generalized form of communication. That is, once children can use
their voices for verbal functions, anyone in their verbal community can mediate
between their non-verbal and verbal worlds. Communicating in a specific verbal com-
munity's language is important; consider, for example, visiting a country in which you
do not speak the language, or participating in the deaf community if you do not know
sign language.
Another advantage of vocal topographies compared to other topographies of
verbal behavior is that the acoustic properties or vowel-consonant speech sounds
of vocalizations provide listeners with compact and accessible bits of "information";
that is, one can hear the acoustic properties of spoken words and this allows for bet-
ter comprehension (Premack, 2004). Most importantly, the properties of vocal ver-
bal behavior make advanced verbal functions more accessible. Andrew Robinson
(1995), one of the leading scholars of the history of writing points out that "Writing
and reading are intimately and inextricably bound to speech, whether or not we
move our lips" (p. 14). For example, if children read a sentence too slowly, they can-
not comprehend its intent (i.e., the latency between spoken or textual is too pro-
longed for the person who is reading to comprehend or listen, so to speak, to what
is said). If children read or respond to text using sign language, then they must also
"listen," or in this case observe the signs to comprehend. This simply is not as effi-
cient as using acoustic properties because more bits of information can be conveyed

can say more with less, so to speak, and alphabets are tied to speech sounds (Robin-
son, 1995). One of the major substitutes for speech used with children with severe
language disabilities is the use of pictures and this can be useful for children when
they cannot yet speak; however, some research suggests that signing is probably
more efficient than pictures (Sundberg, 1993). Signing, however, does not have the
broader advantages of pictures for the community (Sundberg, 1993). In fact, research
comparing the use of pictures (selection-based responding) to signing and writing
(topography-based responding) suggests that topography-based responding may be
more efficient for acquisition of verbal functions than selection-based (Michael, 1985;
Shafer, 1993; Sundberg & Sundberg, 1990; Wraikat, Sundberg, & Michael, 1991).
12 C H A P T E R 1

Imagine having to access the meaning of a passage by matching the print to a

series of pictures or signs instead of matching it to the acoustic properties of speech.
The subtleties of communicative behavior are enhanced through auditory sounds such
that reading and writing are made easier. The type of stimuli that our own responses
produce in the process of reading appears to be critical to the efficiency of reading
(Karchmer & Mitchell, 2003). More can be communicated in less time because of the
properties of auditory stimuli. Our position does not detract from the utility and value
of sign language in Deaf communities, or the use of sign language for those for whom
vocal behavior is not possible. Indeed, there are advantages of sign language over pic-
ture exchanges for the development of reading. However, sign language does not read-
ily translate into more advanced reading, perhaps because of the reasons we just listed
(Karchmer & Mitchell, 2003). What is typically described as reading comprehension
is based on the stimulus control that is produced from our own responses. Reading
aloud or to ourselves involves response-produced stimuli. The textual responses
function as stimuli for us to listen or comprehend what is said. New research is explor-
ing the possibilities of a phonetic or alphabetic type of sign system, and this work may
hold promise for improving the utility of sign language for reading purposes. It is also
quite possible that advances made in computer technology will eventually result in a
visual system that is as efficient as vocal behavior in the future.
Devices that speak may also be used instead of either signs or pictures. For exam-
ple, electronic speaking devices as small as a Palm Pilot®, make it possible for children
to produce vocal behavior electronically and thus benefit from the auditory compo-
nent of speaking, thereby potentially advancing the speaker and listener repertoires
more effectively than either signs or pictures. Most importantly, several procedures

T E X T B OX 1.4
Responses Produce Stimuli (Responses A r e
Stimuli, Too)

Some behavior analysts use the expression own speaker response may function as an
response-produced stimuli to refer to, for antecedent to their own listener response, or the
example, speaking and writing as responses listener response may reinforce or punish the
which, in turn, function as stimuli that exert con- speaker response (i.e., the editing function). Like
trol over listener or reader behavior. However, all behavior, verbal behavior can function as
stimuli produced by behavior are also responses both stimulus and response. A person's environ-
themselves. For example, "speaking" can be a ment includes responses that they emit and that
stimulus for a listener or speaker response. In function as stimuli for their own behavior. The
some cases, speaking is not just a response to a behavior or responses of others function as stim-
stimulus, but is also an antecedent stimulus for uli for our actions. Those responses that func-
other behaviors; or speaking may be a conse- tion as stimuli are part of our acquired
quence stimulus (Lodhi & Greer, 1989; environment. See also the terms speaker-as-own-
Lowenkron, 1984, 1997). As we shall see later, listener and conversational unit in the Glossary in
the speaker-listener distinction also occurs this text for further explanation. These relations
within a person's own skin. In such cases, their are described in detail in later chapters.
 Verbal Behavior Analysis and Verbal D e v e l o p m e n t 13

now exist that allow well-trained verbal behavior analysts to induce vocal behavior for
children who would not typically have attained it. We shall describe those procedures
in Chapters 3 and 4. However, speech is not always possible for some children who do
not have hearing impairments; we recognize that, and provide means to employ other
topographies of communication and that is one of the strengths of verbal behavior. For
now, those children who are not hearing impaired and who have the physiological
structural capacity to speak are taught vocal verbal behavior as a first course. After we
have exhausted the possibilities for vocal communication, we move to other topogra-
phies for communicative functions. Our second choice is the use of electronic devices
that emit speech, the third choice is signing because of its potential to advance verbal
capabilities, and our fourth choice is the use of pictures.

Research in Verbal Behavior Analysis

The verbal behavior analysis research, along with data-based applications to hundreds
of individual children, demonstrates that well-trained practitioners can teach children
to communicate more effectively than was ever possible. One of the earlier studies was
an experiment that compared the use of applied behavior analysis when teaching lin-
guistic objectives to the use of verbal behavior analysis when teaching functional com-
munication. This experiment showed that when students were taught using verbal
behavior analysis, they learned functional and "spontaneous speech," whereas, when
they were taught linguistic objectives with applied behavior analysis procedures, they
learned fewer forms and functions.
In the last 10 years, research in verbal behavior has grown extensively, including
expanding verbal behavior to more fully incorporate the role of the listener. At the
time of writing this text, there were more than 100 experiments testing the verbal
behavior tactics described herein. Table 1.2 displays a few samples of published exper-
iments on verbal behavior from behavior analytic journals. The current text represents
our effort to disseminate experimental findings in verbal behavior to practitioners with
basic training in behavior analysis so that they can apply them when teaching children
with language delays, autism, or other developmental disabilities. While we recognize
that much more research needs to be done, the existing body of work is being dissemi-
nated now to help provide communication repertoires for children who lack them.

Developmental Milestones in Verbal Behavior

Psychologists and educators provide developmental schemes according to age. Indeed,
many disability diagnoses are inferences or hypothetical constructs based on a child's
behavior or test performance as compared to children of the same age (Novak &
Pelaez, 2004). While these developmental measures are used for diagnoses, they are
not particularly helpful for instructional purposes on a day-to-day basis. Prominent
developmental psychologists who are behavior analysts have described age as an empty
variable for explaining development (Bijou, 1996; Novak & Pelaez, 2004). Behavior
analysts seek to identify experiences that will produce changes in children's
14 CHAPTER 1

TABLE 1.2 Experimental Research in Verbal Behavior Analysis

Verbal Function Citation

Autoclitic Howard & Rice (1988)

Esch, Carr, & Michael (2005); Smith, Michael, & Sundberg (1996);
Automatic Reinforcement Sundberg, Michael, Partington, & Sundberg (1996); Yoon & Bennet (2002)
Drash, High & Tudor (1999); Foxx, Faw, McMorrow, Kyle, & Bittle (1988)
Echoic Hall & Sundberg (1987); Lamarre & Holland (1985); Lee & Pegler
Functional Independence (1982); Twyman (1996b)
of Mands and Tacts Burgeois (1990); Charlop & Milstein (1989); Dattilo & Camarata (1991);
Intraverbal Donley & Greer (1993); Lodhi & Greer (1989); Luciano (1986);
Partington & Bailey (1993); Sarokoff, Taylor, & Poulson (2001)
Language Delays in Young Brasolotto, de Rose, Stoddard, & de Souza (1993); Drash & Tudor
Children (1993)
Listener Davis, Brady, Williams, & Hamilton (1992); Greer, Stolfi, Chavez-
Brown, & Rivera-Valdez (2005); Henry & Home (2000); Kennedy,
Itkoner, & Lindquist (1995)
Mand Arntzen & Almas (2002); Bourret, Vollmer, & Rapp (2004); Carroll &
Hesse (1987); Drasgow, Halle, & Ostrosky (1998); Drash, High, & Tudor
(1999); Farmer-Dougan (1994); Hall & Sundberg (1987); Ross & Greer
(2003); Taylor & Harris (1995); Tiger & Hanley (2004); Williams &
Greer (1993); Yamamoto & Mochizuki (1988)
Naming Greer, Stolfi, Chavez-Brown, & Rivera-Valdes (2005); Home, Lowe, &
Randle (2004); Lowe, Home, Harris, & Randle (2002); Lowe, Home, &
Hughes (2005)
Palilalia, Echolalia, Karmali, Greer, Nuzzolo-Gomez, Ross, & Rivera-Valdes (2005);
and Stereotypy Nuzzolo-Gomez & Greer (2004); Valleley, Shriver, & Rozema (2005)
Rule-Governed Behavior Braam & Malott (1990); Marsico (1998); Newman, Buffmgton, &
Hemmes (1991); Reitman (1996)
Stimulus Equivalence, Barnes, McCullagh, & Keenan (1990); Cullman, Barnes-Holmes, &
Relational Frame, and Smeets (2001); Greer, Yuan, & Gautreaux (2005); Halvey & Rehfeldt
Response-Produced (2005); Lowenkron & Colvin (1995); Murphy, Barnes-Holmes, &
Stimulus Control Barnes-Holmes (2005); Rehfeldt & Root (2005)
Tact Arntzen & Almas (2002); Barbera & Kubina (2005); Carroll & Hesse
(1987); Henry & Home (2000); Lamarre & Holland (1985); Partington,
Sundberg, Newhouse, & Spengler (1994); Tsiouri & Greer (2003)
Textual Responding, Daly (1987); Greer, Yuan, & Gautreaux (2003); Madho (1997); Tsai &
Writing Functions, Greer (2006)
and Dictation
Verbal Functions Lerman, Porter, Addison, Vorndran, Vokert, & Kodak (2005)

Select citations from The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Journal of the
Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Research in Developme?ztal Disabilities, Journal of Behavioral Education, and
 Verbal Behavior Analysis and Verbal Development

RESEARCH BOX 1.1

Comparing Verbal Behavior and Linguistic Curricula

"Williams and Greer (1993) compared the other stimuli. Williams and Greer (1993)
number of words correctly used across train- implemented two phases of training in each
ing trials and the accuracy of responses during curriculum using an ABAB design in which the
maintenance probes for three adolescents VB curriculum was always implemented first.
diagnosed with developmental disabilities Although the number of correct trials for each
across VB [verbal behavior] and linguistic participant was similar across training condi-
(similar to that found in many Lovass pro- tions, the number of words emitted during the
grams) curricula. Operant training proce- VB training sessions exceeded the number of
dures, specified as incidental and discrete-trial words emitted during the linguistic training
procedures, were held constant across condi- sessions. The authors also reported that more
tions. In general, procedural features included words taught during previous VB phases were
the antecedent use of nonverbal and verbal emitted in the context of subsequent training
discriminative stimuli, contingent conse- phases for 2 of 3 participants, while the overall
quences including praise and access to addi- number of appropriate words taught during
tional stimuli or events, and the contingent previous linguistic phases that occurred dur-
opportunity to mand for those stimuli or ing subsequent training phases was lower.
events known to have reinforcing properties During maintenance probes that occurred fol-
for a particular participant. Different words lowing the completion of the first linguistic
were taught across the curriculum-specific phase, the second VB phase, and the second
phases, with the exception of "yes/no" linguistic phase, considerably more correct tri-
responses, which were taught in both curric- als were completed from the VB curriculum
ula. The VB curriculum consisted of target than those revisited from the linguistic cur-
responses that were first taught as, [echoics to riculum. The results of multiple maintenance
mands and echoics to tacts, where mands probes conducted at the completion of train-
resulted in the reinforcers and tacts in general- ing and covering all of the words taught across
ized reinforcement.] A series of autoclitic all phases showed a greater percentage of cor-
responses was also trained [specific to each rect responses for the VB curriculum. Hence,
verbal function]. The linguistic curriculum the authors demonstrated considerable sup-
included target responses derived from the port for their VB language curriculum given
program developed by Guess, Sailor, and Baer its comparative effectiveness over the linguis-
(1976) in which individuals were first taught to tic curriculum across a number of dependent
label novel items when asked "What's that?," measures. The Williams and Greer (1993)
and were then taught to label actions, persons, investigation is noteworthy because it was the
and things in a similar manner. Next, individu- first attempt to directly compare Skinnerian
als were taught to state possession and color by and traditional linguistic language curricula
responding to questions such as, "Is this and, thus, can be considered more direct evi-
my/your—?" and "What color?" Finally, par- dence of support for the VB approach than
ticipants were taught to describe the size, loca- studies based on single verbal operants (e.g.,
tion, and relationship of relevant items to 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.
16 CHAPTER 1
Verbal Behavior Analysis and Verbal D e v e l o p m e n t 17
18 CHAPTER 1

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 Total dependency. Individuals without listener repertoires are entirely depend-
ent on others. Interdependency and entrance to the social community are not
possible.
2.Listener Status 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.
3. Speaker Status 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.
4. Speaker-Listener a) Sequelics. Individuals respond as listeners and speakers to intraverbals
Exchanges with including impure tacts ("What is that?") and impure mands ("What do you
Others (Sequelics and want?"). Individuals can respond to questions in mand, tact, or intraverbal
Conversational Units) 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 19

TABLE 1.3 (Continued)

Verbal Milestones Effects on Independent Functioning

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.
5. Speaker-as-Own- Three types of speaker-as-own-listener are identified in the research, a) Say
Listener Status, and Do. Individuals can function as a listener to their own verbal behavior
Say-Do, Conversa- (e.g., First I do this, then I do this). At this stage, the person achieves corre-
tional Units, and spondence between what they say they will do and what they do.
Naming 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.
6. Reader Status 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.
7. Writer Status 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.
8. Writer as Own As writers can read their own writing from the perspective of an eventual audi-
Reader: Self- ence, they grow increasingly independent of reliance on substitute or teaching
Editing Status 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.
9. Verbal Mediation A sophisticated self-editor whose behavior is governed by the verbal expertise
for Solving Problems 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.
CHAPTER 1

TEXTBOX 1*5
Benefits of Verbal Capability Milestones

Verbal capability milestones provide:

• Broad descriptions of children's listener, reader, speaker, and writer capabilities

• Means for determining the ratio of instructors to students for best outcomes
• How and what children can be taught at their present stage of learning
• Functional approaches to cognitive or complex human behavior involving advanced
academic repertoires
• Markers of learner independence
• Valid measures of socialization
• Scientifically identified prerequisites for each milestone that need to be present in
order to move a child to more advanced stages or milestones of verbal capacities

and teachers' actions. While we do not know this to be the case for all children, we can
say that for many children from our schools or research programs, providing the spe-
cific, intense experiences described in this text has been necessary, if not sufficient, for
them to acquire new verbal capabilities. Moreover, our research suggests that these
stages of functional verbal capabilities are critical obstacles that must be surmounted in
the education of children, particularly those with language deficits. Table 1.3 provides
an introduction to the stages/functional verbal capabilities that will guide the interven-
tions we introduce throughout the text. In addition to teaching educational standards
or expanding existing verbal repertoires, we can now provide the means to progress up
the verbal development scale. Unless children advance through these verbal capabili-
ties certain educational standards cannot be learned.
The components or building blocks needed to achieve these broad capabilities
have been identified recently in verbal behavior analysis and the procedures identified
in that work are described in this text. They are the prerequisites for achieving the
broad developmental capabilities. Table 1.4 identifies a few of these and some of the
seminal research citations.
Verbal functions related to speaking or writing provide children with the means
to affect or govern the behaviors of others, and verbal functions related to listening or
reading provide children with the means to be governed by the vocal behavior or print of
others. If the educational standards and curricula that are being taught require these
functions, the child cannot learn them until they have the prerequisite capabilities.
Each progressive stage shown in Table 1.3 and their components in Table 1.4 corre-
sponds with an increase in the capacity to learn repertoires that were not possible
before. The verbal capability stages are building blocks for complex cognitive behav-
iors and steps toward independence. For instance, those who are pre-listeners are
highly dependent on others to meet their needs, and their progress in verbal and cog-
nitive repertoires and in attaining certain educational standards is not possible without
first acquiring the listener repertoire. Pre-listeners must be closely monitored and
 Verbal Behavior Analysis and Verbal Development 21

TABLE 1.4 Seminal Citations for Verbal Capabilities

Verbal Capabilities and Prerequisites Some Seminal Citations

Capacity for Sameness and Accelerated Keohane, Greer, & Ackerman, 2006a
Learning
Conditioned Reinforcement for Visual Keohane, Greer, & Ackerman, 2006b; Longano & Greer,
Observing and Accelerated Learning 2006; Tsai& Greer, 2006
Conditioned Reinforcement for Listening Greer, Dorow, Wachhaus, & White, 1973; Keohane &
and Accelerated Learning Greer, 2006
Acquisition of Basic Listener Literacy and Chavez-Brown, 2005; Greer, Chavez-Brown, Nirgudkar,
Accelerated Learning Stolfi, & Rivera-Valdes, 2005; Harapiak, Martin, & Yu,
1999
See-Do and Hear-Say Join the Duplic Ross & Greer, 2003; Tsiouri & Greer, 2003
Frame
Induction of Echoics Sundberg, Michael, Partington, & Sundberg, 1996;
Williams & Greer, 1993; also see Lowenkron, 1984, 1988,
1996 for how sign substitutes for the "echoic"
Mand and Tact Functions and Autoclitic Lowenkron, 1984, 1996, 1997 as joint stimulus control for
Functions tacts; Ross & Greer, 2003; Sundberg & Partington, 1998;
Tsiouri & Greer, 2003; Twyman, 1996a, 1996b
Speaker-as-Own-Listener Home & Lowe, 1996, 1997; Home, Lowe, & Randle,
2004; Lodhi & Greer, 1989; Lowe, Home, Harris, &
Randle, 2002; Lowenkron, 1984, 1988, 1991, 1996, 1997
Naming (The Phenomenon and Its Fiorile & Greer, in press; Gilic, 2005; Greer, Stolfi,
Induction) Chavez-Brown, & Rivera-Valdes, 2005; Home & Lowe,
1996, 1997; 2004; Lowe, Home, Harris, & Randle, 2002
Transformation of Stimulus Function, Gautreaux, Keohane, & Greer, 2003; Greer, Yuan, &
Establishing Operation Function, and Gautreaux, 2005; Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche, 2001;
Joint Control Lowenkron 1984, 1988, 1991, 1996, 1997; Lowenkron &
Colvin, 1992, 1995; Nuzzolo & Greer, 2004; Tu, 2006
Listener Reinforcement Greer, Reilly-Lawson, & Walsh, 2006
Induction of Tact Repertoire and Emission Schauffler & Greer, 2006; Pistoljevic & Greer, 2006
of Novel Usage of Tacts
Metaphoric Extension from Exemplar Matthews, 2005
Experiences
Writer as Own Listener and Effective Jadlowski, 2000; Madho, 1997; Reilly-Lawson & Greer,
Self-editing 2006
Verbally Mediated Problem Solving Keohane & Greer, 2005; Marsico, 1998
CHAPTER 1

cannot be warned of harm verbally. They cannot be told what is going on and what will
happen to them next; nor can the verbal community at large comfort them. They can-
not communicate all of their needs, discomfort, or feelings; nor can they attain the
social reinforcement and benefits implicit in conversational exchanges with others. As
a frequent result, pre-speakers often resort to tantrums, stereotypy, or self-injurious
behaviors as a means of relieving discomfort, annoyance, or fear. Similarly, children
lacking the capacity for sameness will have difficulty matching and discriminating.
However, when children become listeners, they can respond to the vocal verbal
speech of others and gain a measure of independence, they do not require the close
supervision needed by pre-listeners, and they can be warned, instructed, comforted,
and praised. Similarly, when children become speakers in any of the various speaker
forms (vocal, sign, picture, and symbol), they can convey their feelings, affect others'
behavior, and change their own circumstances; as a result their speaker behavior can
have an effect on a listener. Thus, both listener and speaker functions are critical steps
in attaining one of the foremost goals in education—independence.
The milestones of verbal capabilities that we have identified have a research base
showing not only their importance for independence, but also the importance of mas-
tering each milestone before the successful emergence of later milestones and the
related cognitive repertoires these demonstrate. For instance, until children move
from the pre-listener stage, successive milestones are not achievable or are achieved
with much difficulty, the lack of mastery of prerequisites eventually leads to a learning
plateau. When they achieve the listener stage, they can be verbally governed, that is,
they can do as others say. W t h i n this stage there are different levels of sophistication;
however, once the child achieves the basic components that we describe in the chapter
on learning to listen (Chapter 3), the foundations are in place to expand the listener's
sophistication. While complete mastery of the beginning stages of listening does not
necessarily preclude children's acquisition of speaker behavior (or the teaching of
speaker functions), more advanced stages require that they master the components on
learning to listen that are outlined in Chapter 3 so that the listener and speaker func-
tions are joined together for the individual. The speaker stage incorporates the devel-
opment of basic speaker functions such as mands, tacts, autoclitics, and intraverbal
operants. In the speaker stage, the student learns to govern or direct the behavior of
others such that listeners can serve the interests of the speaker.
When children can rotate speaker-listener verbal episodes such as talking to
others, then they can have conversational units with others. This means that they are
reinforced both as a listener and a speaker in an alternating fashion, resulting in con-
versational episodes. The child is now truly social. In the speaker-as-own-listener
stage, children engage in self-talk by emitting both speaker and listener functions in
imaginative play. Self-talk is not probable, if either listener or speaker functions are
not fluent and reasonably congruent.
Another key component of the speaker-as-own-listener stage is a phenome-
non identified in the research literature as naming. Achievement of the naming reper-
toire means that children can respond to a stimulus as a listener and then use it
immediately as a speaker without instruction, or respond to a stimulus as a speaker and
then use it as a listener without instruction. At this stage children can also direct their
Verbal Behavior Analysis and Verbal Development 23

own activities with their speaker and listener behaviors; they can say what they will do,
and then do it. We call this the correspondence between saying and doing—one of
the early steps toward self-management. Achievement of the speaker-as-own-listener
function allows children to edit their speaker repertoires for the different audiences
they encounter (i.e., some things you just don't say in front of Mom). In effect, in the
speaker-as-own-listener stage, the two repertoires of speaking and listening are joined
within the individual. Each of these repertoires, speaking and listening, can proceed at
different paces. Providing the means to equate or join the repertoires appears critical
to the advancement of more complex human behavior. Throughout the text we treat
each such that the ultimate goal of joining the two is made possible.
When the child is learning to be an effective reader, the naming and other
speaker-as-own-listener functions are joined to print control. At the reader stage, stu-
dents can follow verbal directions that are not restricted by time or distance—the
reader as a speaker also listens to what is said and responds to what is said as a listener.
For example, readers can prepare meals by reading a recipe's directions; speakers do not
need to be present for them to do so—they respond as a listener to their own speech. In
some ways the reader stage is an expansion of the listener stage and the speaker-as-
own-listener stage. The reader stage includes textually responding, which is when
the student says the printed word. The reader function also requires that a reader listen
to the textual response they are emitting, which involves joint stimulus control for say-
ing and doing such that the reader is verbally governed from the text. Moreover, the
joining of the naming function with the textual response means that if the child has the
tact for the stimulus that is said in the textual response then comprehension occurs.
At the writer stage one can verbally govern the behavior of a reader by produc-
ing aesthetic or technical outcomes. That is, the writer in the technical function can
provide directions to a reader and in the aesthetic function the writer can affect the
emotions of the reader. The writer function is an expansion of both the speaker and
speaker-as-own-listener stages. When individuals function at the writer-as-own-
reader or self-editing stage, they expand their speaker-as-own-listener behavior
because they can effectively write and edit their own work without immediate conse-
quences from an audience, allowing them to overcome time and distance constraints.
As each of these capabilities advance and combine, they become the foundations
of verbally mediated repertoires that are part of complex problem-solving processes
across all disciplines involving response produced stimuli. Such repertoires serve as the
bases of science, our legal systems, philosophical inquiry, technological applications,
aesthetic applications of language, and complex communication of all types. In this
text, we concentrate on the very basic foundations of verbal behavior—those concern-
ing the development of listener, speaker, conversation, speaker-as-own-listener, and
early reader milestones. However, the subsequent complex stages of writing, self-
editing, and verbal mediation are dependent on the mastery of all of these founda-
tional repertoires. Furthermore, the stages we cover in this text are the necessary
building blocks for more advanced stages of verbal behavior. Competence in the
advanced stages appears, at present, to be traceable to a lack of competence in founda-
tional listener-speaker, and speaker-as-own-listener stages as identified in the verbal
development work (Greer & Keohane, 2005).
24 CHAPTER 1

Summary
• Typically developing children's seemingly effortless acquisition of complex ver-
bal behavior can be attributed to thousands of language interactions with their
caregivers (Hart & Risley, 1995). However, many children with native or envi-
ronmental disabilities are missing verbal repertoires because of the lack of lan-
guage opportunities or the lack of verbal capabilities to benefit from language
opportunities.
• Verbal behavior analysis is the application of findings from research in verbal
behavior and the basic and applied science of behavior to develop verbal reper-
toires for individuals who are missing them. Verbal behavior analysis is a subfield
of the basic and applied sciences of behavior.
• The primary subject matter of verbal behavior analysis is the function of lan-
guage in a given verbal community, and not neurological correlates of that
behavior beneath the skin, or the identification of the linguistic or structural
practices of a language. The latter two subjects belong to other disciplines. Ver-
bal behavior analysts study the verbal function of language.
• "Verbal behavior" was Skinner's (1957) theoretical, functional account of com-
munication and the effect that speaker behavior has on a listener who mediates
the environment for the speaker. As part of that analysis, he drew on the struc-
tural linguistic categories of Bloomfield (1961) to identify basic structural units
(Matos & Lourdes, 2006).
• Skinner identified and described six elementary verbal speaker functions: (1)
echoics (a duplicating function); (2) mands (the request function); (3) tacts (the
labeling function); (4) intraverbals (the conversational function); (5) autoclitics
(the adjective-object, basic operant modifying functions); and (6) textual behav-
ior (the see print and say function). These are speaker operants defined by
antecedent conditions and the consequences that select out the antecedent and
behavior. Subsequent research and expansion of the theory by Skinner have
identified key listener components of verbal behavior (Greer & Keohane, 2005;
Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche, 2000; Skinner, 1989). Contemporary verbal
behavior analysis includes an expanded treatment of the listener.
• The term verbal is not restricted to vocal responding. Rather, vocal is one type of
response topography and any number of response topographies can be emitted
by a speaker, including sign, gestures, and electronic devices. However, there are
important advantages to the vocal topography, and much more is known now
about how to induce vocal verbal behavior in children who are missing that capa-
bility. When speech is unobtainable, verbal behavior analysis provides substitute
topographies to teach children verbal functions.
• Teaching verbal functions is the main objective of verbal behavior analysis, and
teaching verbal forms is the sub-objective. Both are necessary, but verbal behav-
ior analysis has the tools to install the repertoires or functions of speaking 2nd
listening.
• Verbal capabilities are higher-order operants or higher classes (Catania, 1998)
that allow students to learn new skills or repertoires, in many cases without
 Verbal Behavior Analysis and Verbal Development 25

direct instruction. Inducing a given capability allows for the emission of new ver-
bal responses without direct instruction because the untaught function has
become part of a higher-order operant or class.
• Research on verbal behavior analysis has shown that the use of procedures from
the science produces more speaker behavior for learners with missing verbal
repertoires than linguistic-based curricula that do not employ the procedures
from verbal behavior analysis (Williams & Greer, 1993).
• Verbal stages include pre-listener, listener, speaker, speaker-listener exchanges,
speaker-as-own-listener, reader, writer, reader-as-own-writer, and verbal media-
tion for solving problems. Research in verbal behavior analysis has contributed
to the identification of these stages as well as to the developmental milestones
detailed in subsequent chapters and identified in Table 1.3. Each stage provides a
functional description of a learner's current level of functioning, and can help
direct the instructional interventions and objectives for a particular student.

E N D N O T E S

1. The incidental, milieu, or naturalistic approach to teaching language emphasizes the role of
capturing establishing operations as they naturally occur. Clearly this represented an important
step toward captured opportunities. However, learning requires frequent opportunities;
research in verbal behavior over the last few years has identified ways to create establishing
operations such that teachers need not wait for opportunities to teach an operant. For the sem-
inal naturalistic language references and explanations of that work see Hart & Rogers-Warren
(1978) and Warren, McQuarter, & Rogers-Warren (1984).
2. The theory of verbal behavior and its research applications have been the central thread of the
CABAS® curriculum for several hundred children and adolescents who attended CABAS
schools in the United States, England, Ireland, Italy, and Argentina. CABAS is the acronym for
the Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling. It is an approach to educa-
tion based on teaching as a science using a learner-driven curriculum that embraces educa-
tional standards from various countries in the Western Hemisphere. See Greer, Keohane, &
Healy (2002) for an introduction to CABAS. The instructional operations and curriculum
derived from research in verbal behavior, together with the verbal developmental scheme, have
been applied in CABAS schools for over 25 years. However, the applications were driven by the
research findings and thus the depth of the applications grew as the evidence mounted. See
Greer & Ross (2004) for a program of verbal behavior research from Teachers College Colum-
bia University and CABAS schools together with other research published in The Analysis of
Verbal Behavior, the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Research in Developmental
Disabilities, the Journal of Behavioral Education, the Journal ofEarly and Intensive Behavioral Inter-
ventions, and the Journal of Positive Behavioral Procedures. Other behavior analysts such as Sund-
berg and his colleagues pioneered applications of verbal behavior to the treatment of
individuals with disabilities via psychological services. For procedures and assessments tools,
see Sundberg & Partington (1998).
3. See Chapters 7 and 8 in Greer (2002) for a description of the role of verbal behavior analysis in
the design of curricula for the teaching of complex repertoires beyond the topics covered in
this text. For a description of how research in verbal behavior led to the identification of verbal
developmental stages and capabilities, see Greer & Keohane (2005).