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Printable form
Adapted From:
Verbal Behavior Programming for Advanced Learners
Amy McGinnis, M.S., OTR,
May 2007, POAC of PA
Dataforms for these skills
EstablishingOperationsInc.
Conversation data: Tracking specific types of exchanges
ANGEL Ireland
Advanced Conversation Data Sheet (.doc)
Advanced NET Data Mands For Info Intra verbals WH questions (.doc)
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Skills Advanced Learner learns
- Mands for information (asking questions)
- Answers novel WH- questions about past events
- Begins to initiate and maintain conversation with others
- Tells stories
- Describes steps of activities
- Follows multi-step directions
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NET vs. ITT
- Advanced learners typically need to spend most or all of their session time working on pre-conversation/conversation skills in the natural environment
- Once learners become conversational, the emphasis is shifted to more intensive teaching, in the form of academic instruction
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Natural Environment Training
- Learner initiated choice of activities (motivation is naturally strong)
- Tasks and activities vary frequently
- The preferred items and activities chosen by the learner serve as the basis for the teacher/learner interaction
- Reinforcement is direct and specific to the activity
- Loose structure and many examples of concepts support generalization of language
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Manding for Information
- Why do we ask questions?
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- To obtain information that leads us to other reinforcers (direct reinforcement)
- To obtain or maintain the attention of another person (social reinforcement)
- When first teaching mands for information, we will initially need to contrive situations where the information leads to an already established reinforcer
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Typical Sequence for Teaching Mands for Information
1. Mands for info that lead to direct reinforcement, where therapist does NOT speak first to prime motivation
2. Mands for info that lead to direct reinforcement, where therapist speaks first to prime motivation
3. Mands for information that lead to social reinforcement, where therapist speaks first to prime motivation
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Reinforcement for Mands for Information
- The reinforcer for all of the learner’s mands for information SHOULD BE THE INFORMATION ITSELF.
- Do not deliver a tangible reinforcer or behavior specific praise.
- For example, if the learner asks what is inside a wrapped package, reinforce by giving the correct information (“It’s a coloring book!”) and allow the learner to unwrap it him/herself.
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Teaching Manding For Information
- INITIALLY, the therapist should AVOID SPEAKING to the learner to contrive motivation to prevent developing responses under intraverbal control
- GRADUALLY FADE IN these primers
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Manding for Info: WHAT F13 NOW F19(-R)
- To teach the learner to mand using “what”, the learner must have an MO for information regarding the name of a novel item, the name/source of a sound, or an ongoing event.
Learner: What is it?
Learner: What do you have?
Learner: What are you doing/eating/etc.?
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Manding for Info: WHERE F14 NOW F20(-R)
- Learner must have an MO for information regarding the location of a valuable item or activity. One suggestion is to "misplace" things that are ordinarily transitions to fun activities.
Learner: Where is my shoe? (on the way to going outside.)
Learner:
Learner:
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Manding for Info: WHO F15 NOW F21(-R)
- The learner must have an MO for information regarding a person or character.
- It will be easiest to teach this mand for information when there are several other people present.
Learner: Who’s here?
Learner: Who is it?
Learner: Who has my cars?
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Manding for Info: HOW F18 NOW F26(-R)
- When contriving MO’s for this mand, BE CERTAIN that the learner will be able to INDEPENDENTLY be able to complete the task him/herself WITHOUT ASSISTANCE once given the information. We do not want the learner to mand for information (“How do you do this?”) when s/he really needs to mand for assistance (“I need help.)
- Note that once you use a contrived situation to get the learner to ask “How?”, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE THE SAME SITUATION AGAIN.
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Manding for Info: WHY F20 NOW F28(-R)
- The learner must have an MO for information regarding the reason for something that is going on or something that you are asking him to do.
- Try to do things that are out of the ordinary routine to contrive an MO for this mand. For example, put objects where they do not normally belong, or do something that the learner might find funny or odd.
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Manding for Info: WHEN F17 NOW F25(-R)
- ONE OF THE COMMON ERRORS that occurs when therapists try to teach this mand for information is that they always speak first and say something like “not now” or “later” to the learner to contrive an MO before prompting the learner to ask, “When?”
- IF the therapist always speaks first, the response “When?” may actually be taught as a ROTE INTRAVERBAL response rather than as a mand for information.
- Try to get learner excited about an item or activity by talking about it or showing him pictures. When s/he appears interested, then prompt him/her to ask, “When can we go?”
- Try to give an answer that is concrete and will allow the learner to come into contact with his desired reinforcer very quickly
- When the learner first mands for information using “When?” spontaneously, it is recommended that the therapist MAKE EVERY EFFORT to reinforce IMMEDIATELY.
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Manding for Info: WHICH F16 NOW F24(-R)
- We often use this mand following another mand for information
- In English, we all frequently scroll between What and Which (“What color?” vs. “Which color?”)
- It may be helpful to teach the other mands for information prior to attempting to teach this one
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Primers: Direct & Social; AFTER mands for info without therapist speaking first mastered.
Direct Reinforcement Primers
Once learner has mastered manding for information without the therapist speaking first, begin to speak first to prime the motivation for more mands
o Therapist: “I have something for you!”
+ Learner: "What?"
o Therapist: “I saw someone eating popcorn downstairs.”
+ Learner:" Who?"
o Therapist: “Come on, let’s go for a ride in the car.”
+ Learner: "Where?"
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Social Primers
AFTER teaching mands that lead to direct reinforcement, try to prime the motivation for learner to ask questions where the answer does not directly benefit him/her
o Therapist: “I went out to eat last night…”
+ Learner: "Where?"
o Therapist: “I’m going to the mall with one of my friends.”
+ Learner:" Who?"
o Therapist: “I’m really excited!”
+ Learner:" Why?"
- Learner must have a very strong MO for attention for this to occur
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Teaching Intraverbal Responses to WH- Questions
- Challenge: Teaching the learner to answer NOVEL questions about past events/experiences, rather than rote responses
- How do we answer questions about past events?
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- We tact what is happening during the activity
- When someone asks us a question later, we respond intraverbally, even though the stimuli is no longer present
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Intraverbal Responses to WH- Questions
- Teach approximately two WH- questions at a time (i.e. what & where)
- These should NOT be the same targets as your manding for information targets
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- For example, don’t try to teach answering what/where at the same time as asking what/where.
- Ask different questions every time, to prevent teaching rote responses
- Ask at least 5 exemplars of each question per day (i.e. 5 what questions and 5 where questions)
- Take trial-by-trial data on each question you ask
- Model appropriate grammar, but do not expect the learner to respond in full, grammatically correct sentences
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Steps to Teaching Intraverbal Responses
1a. Tacting the “answer” to the WH- question during the activity
1b. Tact to intraverbal transfer (0-second delay)
2. Tact to intraverbal transfer (extended delay, up to 24 hours) H19/20/21(-R), H32/H42(-R)
3. Intraverbal responding to WH- question, up to 24 hours after the activity occurred H19/20/21(-R), H32/H42(-R)
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Examples:
1a. Tacting during the activity
- (Learner has an MO for watching a movie)
- Therapist: “What is Elmo wearing?”
- Learner: “Hat”
1b. Tact to intraverbal transfer (0-second delay)
- (Learner has an MO to color)
- Therapist: “What are you coloring?”
- Learner:“Fish” (tact)
- (Therapist quickly removes objects from sight)
- Therapist: “What did you color?”
- Learner:“Fish” (intraverbal)
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2. Tact to intraverbal transfer (extended delay)
- (Learner has an MO to make chocolate milk)
- Therapist: “What are we making?”
- Learner: “Chocolate milk” (tact)
- (Therapist waits set increment of time)
- Therapist: “What did we make at snack time?”
- Learner: “Chocolate milk”(intraverbal)
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3. Intraverbal response to WH- question (extended delay)
- (Learner has an MO to sit on a blanket while therapist pulls him across the floor. Therapist DOES NOT comment on what the learner is doing during the activity.)
- (Therapist waits set increment of time, objects are out of sight)
- Therapist: “When we were in the hallway, what did you ride on?
- Learner: “Blanket” (intraverbal)
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Tips for Teaching Intraverbal WHAT H10/11/23/24(-R) & WHERE H12/13/25(-R)
- What and Where are typically the easiest questions for many children to learn to answer
- Some learners may already have experience with answering these types of questions, due to teaching of previous skills
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Tips for Teaching Intraverbal WHO H19 NOW H21 & H28(-R)
- Be sure to use a variety of people/characters when teaching this skill, to prevent rote responses
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Tips for Teaching Intraverbal HOW H22 NOW H32(-R)
- Prior to teaching this skill, make sure that the learner can tact many different actions
- Use a variety of actions when teaching this skill
- Allow the learner to provide a simple, 1-step response, rather than detailed multi-step directions
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Tips for Teaching Intraverbal WHY H23 NOW H33(-R)
- Ask questions regarding age-appropriate cause/effect situations, not abstract concepts
- If you have already taught intraverbal responses to How questions, you can use a reversal to teach the response to the Why question
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- “How do you turn the movie on?” Push play
- “Why did you push play?” To turn the movie on
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Tips for Teaching Intraverbal WHEN H21 NOW H29(-R)
- Teach the learner to tact events in relationship to locations or other events that occurred during the day
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Conversation
- From a verbal behavior perspective, most conversations consist of combinations of:
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- Mands for attention
- Mands for information
- Intraverbals
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Teaching Conversation Skills H39 NOW H43(-R)
- Start with 2-exchange conversations, then gradually increase
- Therapist may need to use primers to evoke the desired combinations of exchanges
- Try to avoid asking too many questions, as this may kill the value of the conversation
- Track how many conversations are initiated by the therapist vs. the learner
- Reinforce after the last exchange
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Two-Exchange Conversation Examples
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Mand for information + mand for information
- Learner: “What are you doing?” (mand for information)
- Therapist: “Baking cookies.”
- Learner: “Why?” (mand for information)
- Therapist: “So we can have some dessert after lunch.”
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Mand for information + mand for attention
- Learner: “This is the best part of the movie!” (mand for attention)
- Therapist: “This part is good, but it’s not my favorite.”
- Learner: “What’s your favorite part?” (mand for information)
- Therapist: “The part where Donkey makes a popping noise with his lips.”
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Mand for information + intraverbal
- Learner: “When can we go to the playground?” (mand for information)
- Therapist: “As soon as you get your socks and shoes on. Where are your shoes?”
- Learner: “I left them downstairs.” (intraverbal)
- Therapist: “Let’s see if we can find them.”
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Mand for attention + mand for attention
- Learner: “Look at that plane!” (mand for attention)
- Therapist: “Wow, that’s cool.”
- Learner: “It’s moving really fast!” (mand for attention)
- Therapist: “They must be in a hurry.”
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Mand for attention + intraverbal
- Learner: “Look at my picture. I drew Shrek.” (mand for attention)
- Therapist: “That’s great. Why is he wearing sunglasses?”
- Learner: “Because he’s going to play outside.” (intraverbal)
- Therapist: “That sounds like fun.”
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Intraverbal + intraverbal
- Therapist: “What did you do today?”
- Learner: “I went swimming.”(intraverbal)
- Therapist: “Who did you see at the pool?”
- Learner: “My friend Joey.”(intraverbal)
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Telling Stories H42 NOW H48(-R)
- Model telling stories, with props
- Take props away (intraverbal story)
- Keep in mind age-appropriate norms (length of story, plot, etc.)
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Step 1 : 2-component story with prop & theme-specific Sd
- Model a 2-component story with a prop
- Model an additional 2 stories with 2 different toys
- Present child with a new toy and give a theme for a story idea
- Child should tell a different 2-component story on the theme provided
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Step 2 : 2-component story with prop (vague Sd)
- Present child with a new toy and give a thematic prompt for a story idea
- Immediately present child with a different toy, and give the general Sd
- Child should tell a 2-component story by generating his/her own theme and the prop provided
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Step 3: 2-component story
(tact to intraverbal transfer)
- Present child with a toy, and give the general SD: “Tell me a story.”
- Child should tell a 2-component story by generating his/her own theme and the prop provided.
- Immediately remove prop from sight and ask child, “Tell me a story.”
- Child should repeat the 2-component story without the prop.
- If child tells a different 2-component story, differentially reinforce!
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Step 4: 2-component intraverbal story
- Present the Sd: “Tell me a story.”
- Child should tell a 2-component story without the use of props.
- Repeat steps #2-4 as necessary to teach child how to tell 3-5 component stories
- Differentially reinforce longer or more detailed stories
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Describing Steps of Activities H25/31 NOW H34/41(-R)
During NET:
o Teach child to tact steps of activities as they occur
o Then ask them to recall the steps without the activity present
During ITT:
o Can teach specific sequences using total task presentation and fading from the end of the sequence (similar to backwards chaining)
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For more info…
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**3/15/10 - this video may not be available**
PaTTAN 12/09/05
Streaming Media: Advanced Verbal Behavior Principles and Approaches for Developing Language in Children with Autism (Video Clip wmv 275 MB)
and
Handout
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2/17/08
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