Bruner's reported analysis of verbal behavior

[Guest guest]

Regarding Bruner's analysis of verbal behavior, the author writes "

" **(Verbal behavior is the type of teaching that we have used with my son

to teach language. Anything new, we teach by breaking down language into

mands, tacts, intraverbals, etc. to help him comprehend its meaning.

(Otherwise, he would not know that a train is something you ride, in addition

to identifying " train. " ) He Bruner feels the behaviorist learning theory

(known as BF Skinners Verbal Behavior today) is inadequate in explaining

language acquisition because it does not address the combinatorial and

generative effect of having a syntax that makes the structure of sentences,

never heard by the child, possible (123). An example of this, for my son, is

when he is ready for bed he says, " And now good night, " a phrase he learned

from a video when he was a toddler. (He is now eight.) He does not know how

to change the sentence structure to be syntactically appropriate because he

has not " heard " it or has not been " taught " it differently. My son is

missing that " link " that most children acquire easily.

**(Verbal behavior is the type of teaching that we have used with my son

to teach language. Anything new, we teach by breaking down language into

mands, tacts, intraverbals, etc. to help him comprehend its meaning.

(Otherwise, he would not know that a train is something you ride, in addition

to identifying " train. " ) He continues to be non-verbal but his receptive

language has greatly improved through this type of teaching. I am very

interested in researching this further to see if there is a missing link that

we can incorporate into an intensive teaching format that may improve his

ability to use expressive language efficiently. How do you teach syntax to a

child who sees the English language as a foreign language to begin with?)

continues to be non-verbal but his receptive language has greatly improved

through this type of teaching. I am very interested in researching this

further to see if there is a missing link that we can incorporate into an

intensive teaching format that may improve his ability to use expressive

language efficiently. How do you teach syntax to a child who sees the

English language as a foreign language to begin with?) "

A different explanation to the problem you describe could be that due to

automatic reinforcement (watching the video repeatedly and hearing the phrase

" an now good night " ) saying this phrase reinforcing (and since it is

automatically reinforced, requires no other reinforcement to continue).

However, the individual " words " are not under appropriate stimulus control.

I am a bit confused however. You say that your son is non-verbal but he says

this phrase? How is he manding? Tacting? Giving intraverbal responses? What

is the topography of his response (sign? pecs?) Any of these would be

considered " verbal " behaviors so do you mean that he is typically not vocal? Is

he able to give echoic responses? I have to assume he has some form of mand

behavior or I doubt your consultant would have FFCs included as a goal in his

program.

If indeed your child is non vocal, you can use " automatic reinforcement " to

increase his vocal productions. I'll send a handout on ways to increase vocal

productions separately.

I've found that children become " generative " (produce their own sentences that

have never been taught) after they have generalized mands and tacts under the

correct stimulus control. For example, the child is able to request and label a

great many objects, actions, adjectives under the correct stimulus control. So

for example, because he has been taught to request the action " push " and the

object " wagon " , he is able to request " push wagon " even if the only response

directly taught had been " push swing " . Or, in the case of tacting, if he has

been taught to label a " dog " and taught to label " brown " under a wide variety of

stimulus conditions, he is able to label a " brown dog " even if the only two word

combination directly taught had been " brown blanket " .

The key is to make sure both mands and tacts are taught to fluency under a wide

variety of stimulus conditions so that each separate " word " is under the control

of the specific attribute of the stimulus. It is definitely more difficult for

many children with Autism to " acquire " syntax but this just means that more

examples have to be taught before the skills will generalize. In my opinion, it

does not " prove " that the verbal behavior account of language acquisition

described by Skinner is inadequate.

I hope this helps!

Vail,MS,CCC/SLP

Speech/Language Pathologist

[Guest guest]

Chomsky spoke about the innatness of the linguistic act considering a normal

functioning language organ. Autistic children don't have it. In that case,

there's no discution about the theory.

ANalyzing skinner's approach, I think he is taking in account differnt functions

a child needs to learn a language. For instance, echoic and immitation may help

the child analize the rotes he is percieving. I think this is the way we can

help a child leave echoic repertoir. Immitating each word individually from the

sentence, and linking it to a picture (tact).

Other problem autistic children have, is the inhability to get cue validity;

that is get the regularities from the chaos. And may be this affect syntax

learning. We have to teach them every rule, every structure, every way of

interaction. THe more schemas he learn, the better he is able to perform in

interaction. As you see, I'm mixing a cognitive approach and behaviorist

approach (skinner should be crazy with me jejejeje). It helped me a lot, and I

believe it's the best way to help these children

na

[Guest guest]

Catania has a nice analogy for noting these distinctions. He

describes it as the difference between studying the physiology of

language (e.g., its functions) vs. the anatomy of language (e.g., its

forms). It was curious that people were arguing that the

physiologists shouldn't study physiology and the anatomists shouldn't

study anatomy. Of course, there's something interesting about each

field of study. However, ideas stemming from Verbal Behavior are

consistent with evolutionary theory. There is replication in verbal

behavior, there is variation, and there is selection. What sets the

occasion for different forms of verbal behavior (verbal behavior can

come in a variety of forms), and what strengthens those forms is what

has concerned behavior analysts. Looking at grammar and attempting

to find structures within individuals that would support grammatical

usage has been a concern of many linguists.

> Chomsky spoke about the innatness of the linguistic act considering

>a normal functioning language organ. Autistic children don't have it.

The " it " has not been found in anyone. It is merely a hypothesis.

If " it " does not exist in autistic children, then they shouldn't be

learning to speak grammatically (which many of them do). It also

would seem to indicate that there's not much hope that they can learn

(which would be an unfortunate assumption).

>In that case, there's no discution about the theory.

> ANalyzing skinner's approach, I think he is taking in account

differnt functions a child needs to learn a language. For instance,

echoic and immitation may help the child analize the rotes he is

percieving. I think this is the way we can help a child leave echoic

repertoir. Immitating each word individually from the sentence, and

linking it to a picture (tact).

> Other problem autistic children have, is the inhability to get cue )

validity; that is get the regularities from the chaos.

Can you add some further clarification here?

>And may be this affect syntax learning. We have to teach them every

>rule, every structure, every way of interaction.

Children with autism have demonstrated both generalization and the

novel coming together of different repertoires. Please see below:

Eikeseth, S., & , T. (1992). The development of functional and

equivalence classes in high-functioning autistic children: The role

of naming. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 58, 123-

133.

Brief summary of article

Four children, already in the UCLA autism project for at least one

year participated. Their ages ranged from 3 years 6 months to 5

years 6 months. Prior to the beginning of this study the children

had been taught a variety of skills related to generalized identity

matching, generalized imitation of verbal stimuli and expressive

naming of visual objects. All children had at least some language

and minimal behavioral problems at the time of the study. As well

the children's visual-spatial and writing skills were average to

above average.

Teaching towards functional equivalence classes requires that some

but not all of the formal relationships between two or more stimuli

sets are taught and skill in responding to the non-trained

relationships is assessed. If the skill is present then learning of

emergent relationships is said to have occurred.

While there are many variations regarding stimulus equivalence the

most common example relates to the idea of:

If A = B

and B = C

then A = C

You teach A = B and B = C and test to see if the child can correctly

respond when you present A = C.

The study found that in general the children did better with the

untrained relations when they were taught to say the label for each

stimulus. Once mastery using named objects occurred success was

variable when new unnamed stimuli sets were introduced.

Devany, J., , S., & , R. (1986). Equivalence class

formation in language-able and language-disabled children. Journal

of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 46, 243-257

>THe more schemas he learn, the better he is able to perform in

interaction. As you see, I'm mixing a cognitive approach and

behaviorist approach (skinner should be crazy with me jejejeje). It

helped me a lot, and I believe it's the best way to help these

children

>

> na

Nothing wrong with exploring the fine work that's been done in

various fields. We'll likely get a lot further in our own work if we

look at what other professionals have discovered. We should,

however, challenge assumptions when we see them being made.