1. Alice Shillingsburg, PhD, BCBA-D
Assessing and Programming for Emergence of Verbal Behavior in Children with ASD and Language Delays
Alice Shillingsburg, PhD, BCBA-D

2. What is Emergence Production of untrained verbal operants
Generative Language
Producing novel sentences in ways that haven’t been produced previously
Using language in new, novel ways
Flexible use of verbal responses

3. “Daddy you have spider webs in your nose tunnels”

4. Behavioral Language Interventions for ASD
Designed around Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior
Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior
Nonverbal behavior operates directly on the environment
I want a drink, I go to the fridge and get it
Verbal Behavior is socially mediated (operates on the environment through others)
I want a drink, I ask for one, someone gives it to me
Speaker and Listener Behavior
Speaker Behavior (Verbal Operants)
Mands, Tacts, Intraverbals
Listener Behavior
Receptive language/following instructions

5. Analysis of Verbal Behavior (Skinner, 1957)
Benefits
How language is being used, not merely what is being said
Accurate description of an individual’s verbal behavior ability
Important for intervention for those with language impairments
Helps to identify language deficits and, therefore, goals
Helps us to understand how to maintain verbal behavior once taught
Natural contingencies that need to be programmed
Maintenance and Generalization

6. Analysis of Verbal Behavior (Skinner, 1957)
Functional independence of verbal operants and speaker and listener repertoires
Should not assume usage of the same word across operants
Should not assume speaker behavior results in listener behavior and vice versa

7. Analysis of Verbal Behavior (Skinner, 1957)
Are the operants actually independent? Yes & No
Hall & Sundberg, 1987 (Tact Mand)
Petursdottir, Carr, & Michael, 2005 (Mand Tact)
Kelley, et al., 2007 (Mand Tact)
Shillingsburg, et al., 2009 (Mand Tact Intraverbal)
Are speaker & listener language independent? Yes & No
Nuzzolo-Gomez & Greer, 2004 (Listener Tact)
Miguel & Kobari-Wright, 2013 (Tact Listener)
Delfs, et al., 2014 (Tact Listener)
Let’s see what we think about functional independence

8. Tact
Increment hammer

9. Listener A B
Functionally Independent?

10. Intraverbal—You use an increment hammer to_____________________________.
Functionally Independent?

11. Tact by function (TFFC)
Increment hammer

12. Intraverbal—You use an increment hammer to_____________________________.
Intraverbal—You measure tree growth with an _____________________________.
Functionally Independent?

13. Are the operants actually independent? Yes and No
During normal development, interdependence occurs
Across Operants
Speaker to listener and vice versa
At some point in development speaker and listener behaviors become interrelated (Horne & Lowe, 1996)
Naming
Learning in one leads to performance in the other

14. “ball” overtly or covertly
“Go get the ball.”
“What is it”
“ball”

15. “What is it”
“ball”
“Which one is the the ball.”

16. Independence/Interdependence
Why does it matter?
Specific responses may need to be targeted across operants and both listener and speaker behavior may need to be taught…….
What does this mean for language development and efficiency of intervention for those with language impairment?
FOREVER?

17. Why it matters!!! Intervention programs should:
Assess functional independence/interdependence
Do untaught skills emerge
Within and/or across verbal operants
Across speaker and listener skills
Integrate assessment results into programming
Do something with the assessment information
No interdependence---try to fix that!!
Yes interdependence---teach efficiently!!

18. Objectives
Studies on assessing and programming for emergence of untaught skills
1. Emergence within verbal operants (Tact)
2. Emergence across speaker and listener skills
Receptive ID and Tacts
Receptive by Feature, Function, Class (RFFC) and TFFC
3. Emergence of Intraverbals
Contextual Teaching
Problem Solving Strategy

19. Overarching Themes
Careful selection and arrangement of stimuli prior to teaching
Test-Train-Test Model
Probing under extinction conditions

20. Who are We Programming For?
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Mild to moderate language impairment
VB-MAPP Levels 2 and 3
Vocal language repertoire
Strong basic mands and tacts
Strong listener skills/RFFC
Beginning complex tacts (word combinations, TFFCs)
Beginning Intraverbals

21. Limited spontaneous or flexible intraverbals
Pretty well developed RFFC
Emits 10 mands without specific training
100s of tacts using nouns and/or verbs
Answers some simple what questions but not more complex
Noun-verb combinations
Word combinations when Manding

22. Emergence within the Operant
Children with autism
Do not combine words into multi-word utterances when typically developing children do (Paul, Chawarska, Klin, & Volkmar, 2007)
Despite having similar number of single words in repertoire
Engage in rote, inflexible responding
Interventions to promote word combinations in flexible, novel ways are needed

23. Emergence within the Operant
Tact noun-verb combinations
Dog sleeping, Boy drinking, etc
Individual components in the repertoire
Any number of combinations is possible
Not interested in acquisition of directly taught targets
Emergence of novel combinations

24. Emergence within the Operant
Recombinative Generalization
Process in which individuals come to produce and respond to novel combinations of known components (Goldstein & Mousetis, 1989)
Involves teaching with overlapping stimuli
Matrix Training
Systematic method to organize overlapping stimuli within a matrix
Reading/Spelling (e.g., Hanna, et al., 2004)
Receptive actions in preschoolers with ASD (Axe & Sainato, 2010)

25. Diagonal Targets (Trained)
Non-Diagonal Targets (Untrained)

29. Goals Recombination of targeted skills
Each individual component was taught in a combination on the diagonal
Probe recombined tact noun-verb targets
Emergence of combining untargeted nouns and verbs
Probe untargeted set (Generalization Matrix)
The diagonal is never taught

30. Tact Noun-Verb comb.
Frampton et al. (accepted)

31. Frampton et al. (accepted)

38. Results Recombination of targeted skills
Emergence in untrained matrix for 4 participants
When emergence did not occur?
Multiple set training aided in emergence in untrained set for Jake

39. Emergence Across Speaker and Listener
Receptive identification/tact item name
Receptive Feature Function Class (RFFC)/ Tact Feature Function Class (TFFC)

42. Delfs et al (2014)

43. Emergence Across Speaker and Listener
Examining emergence of RFFC/TFFC
If you teach the RFFC, does TFFC emerge and vice versa
Modify assessment for clinical use (i.e., shorter)
Probe each target once
Evaluate emergence of Intraverbal

44. Mark

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46. Intraverbal Emergence
What about the intraverbal?

47. Mark

48. Mark

49. Emergence of Intraverbals
Tact and Listener training can result in emergence of intraverbals (Petursdottir, et al., 2008)
Icelandic/Spanish language words
Tact training alone can result in emergence of intraverbals (May et al., 2013)
Tact categories and match-to-sample can result in emergence of intraverbals (Grannan & Rehfeldt, 2012)
But what happens when intraverbals don’t emerge?

50. Mark

51. Emergence of Intraverbals
How do we get the intraverbal without teaching it?
Two promising procedures to consider

52. Emergence of Intraverbals
Prerequisite interrelated operants (known)
Receptive ID (e.g., cup)
Tact (e.g., cup)
RFFC (e.g., point to the one you drink from)
TFFC (e.g., this is something you use for ____)
Embed Intraverbal frames within sessions with these 4 interrelated operants
Examine effects on intraverbals that were interspersed
Examine effects on other non-interspersed intraverbals
Intraverbal frame

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55. 23 of 24 Intraverbals
12 of 12 Intraverbals

56. Mark

57. Problem Solving Strategy
Teach a strategy to generate their own intraverbal responses
Typically developing children and complex intraverbals
Verbal Rules (Sauter, LeBlanc, Jay, Goldsmith, & Carr, 2011)
Visual Imagining (Kisamore, Carr, & LeBlanc)
Current study examined combination of verbal statements and visual sequencing
Generate verbal explanations of how to do something
Children with ASD and language impairments

58. Problem Solving Strategy
Three pairs of activities with 4 steps to completion
Play Bowling
First, you set up the pins
Next, you get the ball
Then, you roll the ball
Last, you knock over the pins
Intraverbal response to “tell me how to….”
Naturalistic probe (in the moment of the activity)
Intraverbal Trials (at a teaching table; no materials)
Problem Solving Strategy
Sequencing pictures of the steps and using the rules: first, next, then, last

61. Conclusions
Typical language development involves emergence of novel, untrained responses
Emergence in individuals with language impairments may or may not occur
Imperative to assess, modify practice, and develop procedures to enhance emergence
Common themes
Test-Train-Test model
Practical Probes
Multiple Exemplars/Across Sets
Methods to promote generalization of skills and catapult rates of acquisition and flexible communication

62. Thank You!!!