Verbal Behavior

Verbal Behavior, a component of Applied Behavior Analysis, is a behavioral language approach to teaching in which a message is communicated between two people in any form (speech, signs, etc.). Verbal Behavior is based on Skinner's research in his book, "Verbal Behavior" in which he focuses on the function of language rather than the structure of it. He believed that there were four main verbal operants, or functions of speech: the mand, the tact, the echoic, and the intraverbal. A mand is a request for something, like when a child asks for food when they are hungry. A tact is a label or being able to name an object. An echoic is vocal imitation, or repeating what some one else has said. However, echoics do not represent an understanding of what the person is saying, rather simple vocal repetition. The final verbal operants are intraverbals, or the ability to talk about an object that is not present. This is shown through conversation about objects, such as asking a child, "Where do you sleep?" and they reply "a bed."

The Lovaas method also is used to teach language to children, however, there are some differences between Verbal Behavior and the Lovaas method. The first objective in the Lovaas method is to teach a child how to sit at the table and make eye contact with the therapist. Once this is mastered, they move on to more complicated tasks. Therapists focus on teaching children expressive and receptive language rather than the function as with Verbal Behavior. In Verbal Behavior, an errorless approach to teaching is used in which the answer is given to the child so they can learn the answer as opposed to the "No-no" prompting in the Lovaas method. Verbal Behavior is also based on the concept of pairing in which the therapist becomes a conditioned stimulus and the child begins to associate the therapist with positive reinforcement. This manner of teaching allows children to better generalize their language skills in order to apply their knowledge to many different environments.