(cross) Dr Partington NJ/PA workshop: Advanced Teaching Verbal Behavior

[Guest guest]

Behavior Analysts, Inc.

Advanced Professional Workshop: Teaching Verbal Behavior

Hello all - we are gathering participants in an effort to bring

Behavior Analysts Inc. to the NJ/PA area during the fall or early

winter. The presenters are Dr. Partington (co-author of the ABLLS

and Teaching Language to Children with Autism or Other Developmental

Disabilities) and Stacey Carrol. 18 BCBA credits are available for

the workshop. What follows is a portion of the brief course outline;

more information can be found at

www.behavioranalysts.com/training/workshop-teaching-verbal-

behavior.html or you can contact Stacey at

stacylcarroll@.... There are about 12 more openings for

participants and the cost will be $300-$400 for 3 days, depending on

number of attendees. Location and date to be determined after we

have enough interest. Please email Robyn at

RCatagnus@... if you are interested in

attending, as I am organizing the event. Thanks!

This workshop is designed as an intensive and highly-interactive

advanced seminar for professionals with extensive experience in

behavior analysis and at least one year of developing and supervising

programs for children with language delays using the ABLLS as an

assessment tool in a verbal behavior approach. Generally, prior

attendance at the Teaching Children with Language Delays workshop is

recommended.

Based on inservices developed for consultants at Behavior Analysts,

Inc., this workshop includes specific case reviews, and covers the

theory and practice of designing and problem-solving educational

programs based on an analysis of a child's verbal behavior. In

addition to general principles of verbal behavior, the workshop

covers establishing operations, prompt-dependency and generalization

issues, and conditional discrimination, and goes into depth on

procedures for teaching mands, RFFC, and intraverbals. Focus is also

placed on supervision of staff.

Verbal Behavior

Participants will be able to:

… define and distinguish between verbal and nonverbal behavior

… describe the behavioral view of typical language development

… distinguish between speaking and listening behavior in terms of

function

… define and give an example of each verbal operant: mand, tact,

intraverbal, echoic, textual, receptive/RFFC

… classify a verbal interaction in terms of the verbal operants

… be able to determine appropriate instructions/responses to teach a

given word as any given verbal operant

Instructional Control

Participants will be able to:

… define and give examples of reinforcers and conditioned reinforcers

… assess a student¹s reinforcers and generate ideas for expanding a

student¹s repertoire of reinforcers

… describe the key steps in establishing the instructor as a

conditioned reinforcer

… describe the key steps in establishing initial instructional control

… identify common problems in establishing and maintaining

instructional control

Prompt Dependency

Participants will be able to:

… explain how differential reinforcement and correction procedure

helps alleviate prompt dependency

… explain the critical elements of SD presentation for reducing

prompt dependency

… describe methods of array management and prompt variation to reduce

prompt dependency

… define and distinguish between shaping and fading

… describe how shaping can be used to eliminate prompt dependency

… describe how prompt-dependency may occur with fading procedures and

how it can be alleviated

Motivation and Mand Training

Participants will be able to:

… define establishing operations (EO) and give examples

… explain how the EO fits into the analysis of behavior

… distinguish between EOs and reinforcement and discriminative stimuli

… explain how EOs can affect negative behavior

… explain the role of EOs in mand training

… capture motivation to use for mand training

… contrive motivation to use for mand training:

facilitate spontaneous manding

implement procedures for manding for missing items

implement procedures for manding for information

… select first words for use in mand training

RFFC-IV Training

Participants will be able to:

… define conditional discrimination and give examples

… explain the role of conditional discrimination in language training

… generate sufficient RFFC trials to establish conditional

discrimination

… determine appropriate first word sets and SDs for RFFC and IV

training to avoid rote responding

… program teaching FFC across the verbal operants

… transfer RFFC and tact skills to intraverbals for early and

advanced vocabulary items

Programming for Generalization

Participants will be able to:

… Define and give examples of stimulus and response generalization

for each verbal operant.

… Determine possible reasons a skill may fail to generalize.

… Program for stimulus generalization.

… Program for response generalization.

… Program match-to-sample skills to increase generalization

Naturalistic Teaching

Participants will be able to:

… implement teaching sessions using a mixed verbal behavior approach

… develop plans for teaching IEP objectives in the context of

ongoing, motivational activities, using discrete trial teaching

techniques

… identify and implement strategies for capitalizing on natural

learning opportunities

Structured Case Review

Throughout workshop plus additional half-day or more on third day.

Participants will categorize their cases according to a number of

common problem areas. Through problem-identifying checklists and

facilitated group discussions, cases will then be discussed, and

participants will generate action plans for further problem-solving

and implementation of revised program procedures.

Categories of case problems to be discussed:

… noncompliance

… prompt-dependency

… generalization

… spontaneity

… lack of acquisition