A New Generation of Verbal Behavior The Importance of ... Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and...

1

A New Generation of Verbal BehaviorAssessment and Intervention:

The VB-MAPP

Mark L. Sundberg, Ph.D., BCBA(www.marksundberg.com)

The Importance of Language andSocial Behavior

• The primary focus of an intervention program forchildren with autism should be on the development ofeffective language and social skills

• There clearly are several other areas in need, such self-help, visual motor skills, academics, fine and grossmotor, etc., but language and social skills are typicallythe most significant deficits for children with autism,and careful training is the key to the most significantgains

Assessment of an IndividualChild’s Needs

• Our first task is to identify the existing skills of each child• Our next task is to identify the language, social,

behavioral, and learning barriers that are preventing morerapid learning

• The failure to conduct an appropriate assessment resultsin one of the biggest problems in programs that servechildren with autism: An inappropriate curriculum

• We need a tool that is easy to use and will provideteachers, parents, and staff with the necessary informationto develop an appropriate intervention program

A Behavioral Approachto Language

• Behavioral psychology has a lot to offer those who work withchildren with autism

• Basic teaching procedures and methodology derived fromApplied Behavior Analysis (e.g., prompting, fading, shaping,chaining, reinforcement, extinction)

• These procedures and methods have a solid researchfoundation that can be easily found in over 1500 empiricalstudies that have been conducted over the past 60 years

• The functional analysis of behavior (e.g., aggression, SIB)• Skinner’s functional analysis of verbal behavior (1957)

The Behavioral Classificationof Language (Skinner, 1957)

• Mand: Asking for reinforcers. Asking for “shoe” because youwant shoe

• Tact: Naming or identifying objects, actions, events, etc.Saying “shoe” because you see shoe

• Listener: Following instructions or complying with the mandsof others. Touching a picture of shoe when asked “Touchshoe”

• Echoic: Repeating what is heard. Saying “shoe” after someoneelse says “shoe”

The Behavioral Classificationof Language

• Imitation: Copying someone’s motor movements (as they relate tosign language)

• Copying-a-text: Writing “shoe” because someone else writes “shoe”• Intraverbal: Answering questions or having conversations where

your words are controlled by other words. Saying “shoe” becausesomeone else says “What do you need to put on your feet?”

• Textual: Reading words. Saying “shoe” because you see the writtenword “shoe”

• Transcription: Writing and spelling words spoken to you. Writing“shoe” because you hear “shoe” spoken

2

Behavioral Language Assessment

• The verbal operant is the functional unit (form and function)• Each verbal operant involves separate sources of control

(independent variables), thus each must be assessed• Most verbal responses are under multiple sources of control• More complex verbal behavior is comprised of various

combinations of the verbal operants• Speaker and listener as separate repertoires• Criterion-referenced assessment

Problems with the ABLLS(Partington & Sundberg, 1998)

• A significant improvement over Spradlin, 1963; Sundberg, et al, 1979; Sundberg,1983, 1987, 1990

• Too many skills to assess (476, over 1500 cells with the 1-4 criteria)• Steps in the cells were too small for IEP goals (Milestones are better)• Skills not developmentally balanced out on the grids• Much of it is out of developmental sequence (as I see it now)• Core sequence of verbal skills is 25 years old (Sundberg, 1983)• Just a listing of skills with examples, and a scoring criteria• Confusing progression of skills; up or out?• No content on what constitutes mands, tacts, intraverbals, etc.• No content/text on how to conduct a verbal behavior analysis

Problems with the ABLLS(Partington & Sundberg, 1998)

• Not a “curriculum” for language intervention: “curriculum guide”• Originally, the ABLLS was designed to accompany the “Teaching Language to

Children with Autism” book (The ABLLS was not designed to serve as a standalone product)

• Not enough information in the individual cells to explain the skill being assessedand the relevant sources of control (e.g., noun-verb tacting, mands for information,multiply controlled intraverbal behavior)

• No placement system (e.g., when to start IV)• No verbal behavior analysis of language and learning barriers (a major component

of assessment)

Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessmentand Placement Program:

The VB-MAPP• Based on Skinner’s (1957) analysis of verbal behavior• Based on typical language development milestones• An assessment should probe a representative sample of a repertoire• Typical verbal milestones can provide the frame for that sample• By identifying milestones, as opposed to a task analysis of individual skills, the

focus can be sharper, the direction clearer, milestones can help to avoidfocusing on minor steps, and targeting skills for intervention that are developmentally inappropriate

• Field test data from approximately 75 typically developing children• Field test data from over 200 children with autism• Based on the body of empirical research that provides the foundation of Behavior

Analysis• Based on the empirical research on Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior The

assessment is designed to identify the child’s existing language and related skills

Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program:

The VB-MAPP

• There are five components of the VB-MAPP• The VB-MAPP: Skills Assessment contains 170 verbal behavior

milestones across 3 developmental levels (0-18 months, 18-30months, 30-48 months) and 16 different verbal operants and relatedskills

• The VB MAPP: Barriers Assessment examines 22 commonlearning and language barriers faced by children with autism

• The VB MAPP: Transition Assessment evaluates a child’s abilityto learn in a less restrictive educational environment across 18different skills

•

Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program:

The VB-MAPP

• The VB-MAPP: Skills Task Analysis and Tracking provides afurther breakdown of the different skill areas in the form of achecklist for skills tracking

• The VB-MAPP: Placement and IEP Goals providesrecommendations for program development for children based ontheir VB-MAPP profiles, and their specific scores for each of the170 milestones and the 24 Barriers. In addition, over 200 IEPobjectives directly linked to the skills and barriers assessments, anda verbal behavior intervention program are provided

3


The VB-MAPP Skills Assessment

• The 16 skills assessed on the VB-MAPP include:• The elementary verbal operants (e.g., echoic, mand, tact, intraverbal)• The listener skills• Vocal output• Independent play• Social skills and social play• Visual perceptual skills and matching-to-sample• Grammatical and syntactical skills• Group and classroom skills• Beginning academic skills



• The milestones are broken into three developmental levels (see Skills Form)• Level 1: 0-18 months• Level 2: 18-30 months• Level 3: 30-48 months• The scores for each skill are approximately balanced across each level• There are 5 items and 5 possible points for each skill area (e.g., level 1, tact)• There are three boxes in all sections for three separate administrations

(See Tact Assessment Form Sample)• Each of the 170 items is scored 0, 1, or 1/2 based on the criteria in the

VB-MAPP instruction manual• Looking for the operant level; If the skill is below the operant level score

quickly and move on, if it is close to the operant level, test it

VB-MAPP Level 1: Tact



• The total for the five items is marked on the top of each skill area• The totals for each skill area are added for all three levels and

placed on the VB-MAPP Scoring Form• The total score on the Echoic sub-test is converted to a milestone

score on the VB-MAPP form• The specific items on the VB-MAPP have been adjusted many

times based on the field-test data (See VB-MAPP AssessmentForms)


The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment

• It is important to find out what a child can do (The VB-MAPP Skills Assessment),but also important to know what they can’t do, and analyze why they can’t do it

• The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment is a tool that is designed to identify and score24 different learning and language acquisition barriers

• Once a specific barrier has been identified, a more detailed descriptive and/orfunctional analysis of that problem is required

• There are many ways that a verbal repertoire or related skill can become defective,and an individualized analysis will be necessary to determine what the nature ofthe problem is for a specific child, and what intervention program might beappropriate

4


The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment• Defective Verbal Behavior

• A descriptive functional analysis of verbal behavior (Skinner, Chap 1)• A behavioral analysis of words, phrases, and sentences emitted by children with autism• Same basic principles of behavior as nonverbal behavior• What is the source of control?• These sources of control will often reveal that what appears to be a correct response in form is

actually incorrect in function• Might not be the same source of control observed in a typically developing child (e.g., I have

a red shirt on)• Each verbal operant can be susceptible to unwanted sources of control


The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment• Defective Verbal Behavior

• Defective mands (I want candy. What’s that?)• Defective tacts (Bounce ball, Black car, Under table)• Defective intraverbal responses (Poopies evoked by What do you smell in the

oven?)• The behavior analyst must determine what the correct source of control should

be, and how that source can be established• The functional analysis of verbal behavior is on-going• The failure to conduct such an analysis may result in rote or defective verbal

repertoires that can become difficult to change• This is how behavior analysis is different, this is what we do as behavior

analysts



• Common Learning and Language Acquisition Barriers

• Instructional control (Escape/avoidance)• Behavior problems• Defective mand• Defective tact• Defective motor imitation• Defective echoic (e.g., echolalia)• Defective matching-to-sample• Defective listener repertoires (e.g., LD, LRFFC)




• Defective intraverbal• Defective play and social skills• Prompt dependent, long latencies• Scrolling responses• Defective scanning skills• Failure to make conditional discriminations (CDs)• Failure to generalize• Hyperactivity




• Weak or atypical MOs• Response requirements weakens the MO• Self-stimulation• Articulation problems• Obsessive-compulsive behavior• Reinforcement dependent• Does not attend to people/materials• Sensory defenseveness



• Scoring the VB-MAPP Barriers Form• Rate the child on the VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment Form using a

Likert-type scale of 0 to 4• A score of 0 or 1 would indicate that there are no significant

barriers, and a formal intervention plan may not be required.• A score of 2, 3, or 4 would indicate that there is a barrier, that

probably should be addressed as part of the intervention program• For some children the immediate focus of the intervention program

is on removing a particular barrier, rather than language instruction• The most common immediate barriers to remove involve

instructional control problems, or other behavior problems

5

VB-MAPPS forTypically Developing Children

Lisa HaleMark L. Sundberg

Rikki RodenCarl T. Sundberg

Cindy A. Sundberg

6

VB-MAPPs forChildren with Autism

Mark L. SundbergCarl T. Sundberg

Shannon RosenhanShannon Montano

Kaisa Weathers

8


Skills Task Analysis

• The milestones can be considered floors in a building, and the taskanalysis contains the steps between each floor

• There are 170 milestones and approximately 1000 total tasks in theVB-MAPP task analysis

• The task analysis form also allows for more detailed skills tracking• Building a whole repertoire, not just individual skills (e.g., mand,

tact, M-T-S repertoires)

Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessmentand Placement Program:IEP Goals and Placement

• The results of the VB-MAPP Skills and Barriers Assessmentprovide guidance for the development for an intervention program

• Specific IEP goals are provided for each milestone and barrier• The assessment corresponds with the verbal behavior intervention

program (Sundberg & Partington, 1998; Sundberg, in preparation)

The VB-MAPP:Transition Assessment

• A common goal for many educators and parents of children with special needs isto integrate the child into a mainstream setting

• There are many different levels of integration and the Transition Assessment wasdesigned to identify the skills that increase the probability that a child will besuccessful in a less restrictive setting

• No single skill will be a good determiner of success, but a collective body of skillscan help educators and parents make decisions

• The VB-MAPP Transition Assessment provides a tool to help determine if a childhas the necessary prerequisite skills to learn in a less restrictive classroomenvironment

• There are 18 skill areas on the Transition Assessment

9


• The Transition skills include:• Overall VB-MAPP Skills score• Negative behaviors (Barriers)• Group skills• Social skills• Independence• Classroom routines• Play skills• Toileting


• The Transition skills include:• Spontaneity• Reinforcers• Learning in the natural environment• Generalization• Quick acquisition• Retention• Transfer skills• Self-care• Safety


The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment• An Analysis of a Defective Mand Repertoire

• A substantial number of children with autism have an absent, weak, or defective mandrepertoire

• Many of these same children have extensive tact and listener skills, as well as otherelevated scores on the VB-MAPP Skills assessment

• Often, under these circumstances it is not uncommon to see the child engage in a tantrumor some other form of negative behavior as a mand

• A word acquired under SD control may not automatically transfer to MO control• This distinction between SD and MO antecedent control is not systematically

incorporated into many of the popular language assessment and intervention programsdesigned for children with autism

• There are many potential causes of a defective mand repertoire and a functional analysisis necessary to determine the cause for an individual child


The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment• Potential causes of an absent, weak, or defective mand repertoire

• Mand training is not part of the child’s early language training history• The target response form is too difficult for the child• When a child has no or limited vocal behavior, sign language or PECS has not been tried• The response requirement is too high and weakens the relevant MO• There is no current MO in effect for targeted item (e.g., satiation, weak to begin with)• The response is prompt bound by physical, echoic, imitative, or verbal stimuli• A nonverbal stimulus acquires control of the response and blocks MO control• A verbal stimulus acquires control of the response and blocks MO control• Motivation (MO) does not control the response form



• The child has weak MOs in general• Free or cheap access to reinforcers without manding• Self-stimulation or obsessive behaviors compete with other MOs• A small group of mands has a strong history of reinforcement (e.g., candy, juice, skittles)• There is a limited availability of established imitative or echoic responses• No variation in captured or contrived MOs• Negative behavior functions as mands• Inappropriate mands become too strong and are intermittently reinforced• The curriculum is poorly sequenced• Fading out the object/nonverbal stimulus too soon

10



• A single response topography functions as the mand (e.g., more, please, that)• Can’t establish differential response topographies• Scrolling gets reinforced• Not enough mand trials are provided each day• Poor audience control• Mands only required and reinforced in specific setting• Generalization training is not provided• Verbal information does not function as reinforcement for the child• Manding does not come under the control of natural contingencies• A history of punishment for attempts at manding


The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment• An Analysis of a Defective Tact Repertoire

• The tact repertoire is less susceptible to becoming defective than the mand or intraverbal, due in part,to the nature of the controlling variables for the tact

• Nonverbal stimulus control is more measurable and accessible, and in general, much clearer thanmotivational control (mand), and verbal stimulus control (intraverbal)

• It is often the case that the wrong nonverbal stimulus acquires control of a tact• For example, when teaching tacts related to verbs, the goal is that the specific moving nonverbal

stimulus evokes a specific response, not the object related to the movement• Some children learn to emit a word that is a verb in form but not in function, as in the response

Drinking juice when just shown a cup, or Throwing ball when shown a ball• Similar problems can be observed in efforts to teach tacts related to prepositions and adjectives (e.g.,

Above and Below. Big and little)• Gone unchecked, these tacting errors can be difficult to change and can become the source of other

verbal problems later in training, such as intraverbal rote responding



• Some common causes of an absent, weak, or defective tact repertoire• A limited amount of formal tact training has been provided• Other barriers such as instructional control dominate the educational activities• Articulation is unintelligible, and augmentative communication has not been tried• Tacting is prompt bound by echoic, imitative, or other SDs (e.g., lip prompts)• Scrolling through targeted tacts gets reinforced• Single response tacts have been over conditioned• Limited training with multiple SDs and multiple response tacting• The wrong source of control is established (e.g., tacting verbs or emotions from pictures)


The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment• Some common causes of an absent, weak, or defective tact repertoire

• Failure to analyze complexities of tacts involving prepositions, pronouns,adjectives, private events, social behavior, etc.

• Verbal stimuli do not establish a feature of nonverbal stimuli as an SD (IV/Tactcombo)

• Poorly sequenced curriculum• Generalization training is not provided (stimulus and response classes)• No spontaneous tacting due to additional prompts in training (SD effect)• No spontaneous tacting due to aversive variables present in training (MO-

Reflexive)• Tacting not reinforced by natural or automatic contingencies• The child has a punishment history for tacting• Excessive or inappropriate tacting gets reinforced


The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment• An Analysis of a Defective Intraverbal Repertoire

• Intraverbal behavior is most prone to becoming rote for children with autism• The task of directly teaching intraverbal behavior is complicated and endless• Early intraverbal training is pretty straight forward, but by 3-4 years of age, a typical

child acquires 1000s of different intraverbal relations• Most adults have hundreds of thousands of different intraverbal relations as a part of

their verbal repertoires (e.g., newspaper, books, the internet)• Contact with these verbal stimuli can evoke numerous intraverbal responses, such as

discussions of the facts (e.g., global warming, autism, SD vs. the MO)• The number of different intraverbal relations far outnumbers the number of different

mands and tacts. The frequency of mands may be greater than intraverbals, but often themands are related to a relatively small set of MOs

• Language would be simple if a verbal repertoire was like a passenger list on a ship orplane (Skinner, 1957)



• Many children with autism have a great deal of difficulty acquiring meaningful intraverbal behavior.Some have acquired 100s of tacts and LDs, but fail to acquire more than a few simple intraverbalrelations

• Tacting, imitation, echoic, matching, LDs, textual, and transcriptive have a degree of sameness thatmay come easier for children with autism than intraverbal behavior

• Not only are the antecedents for these repertoires more consistent and clearer, but also the responseis frequently the same (A spoon is usually Spoon, 2 is always Two)

• Intraverbal relations, by their very nature, involve constantly changing SDs and responses• For example, a tree is always a tree for echoic, tacting, matching, etc., but the discussion about trees

can be comprised of hundreds, if not thousands, of different intraverbal relations• Furthermore, the discussion about trees may never occur exactly the same way each time• However, this type of defective intraverbal behavior is not uncommon for some high functioning

individuals with autism, and especially those with Aspergers

11



• Verbal SDs are usually much more complicated than the nonverbal SDs• Verbal SDs usually contain multiple components, occurring in a brief time frame• Multiple words as SDs almost always involve verbal conditional discriminations• Vocal verbal stimuli are transitory, nonverbal stimuli tend to be more static• Attending to verbal SDs is often more laborious than attending to nonverbal SDs• Visual stimuli may block the establishment of control by verbal stimuli• Many words that are not clearly evoked by a corresponding nonverbal stimulus (e.g., the,

a, can’t, usually, if, its, for, of, anyway, whatever) but form the VCDs• IV responses are typically more complex than responses associated with tacts• The MLU of a tact tends to be much shorter than the MLU for an intraverbal• There is often only so much that can be said about a specific nonverbal stimulus (e.g.,

the tact bike vs, IV story about a bike)• The tact response is often shaped to include only the salient information


The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment Some common causes of an absent, weak, or defective intraverbal repertoire

• The child has not received formal intraverbal training• The child is given training, but it’s to early to focus on intraverbals• The child’s echoic repertoire is too strong (echolalia)• Nonverbal stimuli control response form (tact prompt bound)• MOs control response forms (strong IVs on favorite topics)• The intraverbal curriculum is out of developmental and behavioral sequence• Rote intraverbal responses have been firmly established due to conditioning history• Out of context or irrelevant intraverbal training may establish odd forms of IV behavior• Single verbal stimuli and single verbal responses have been over conditioned


The VB-MAPP Barriers AssessmentSome common causes of an absent, weak, or defective intraverbal repertoire• The specific target responses are not in the child’s repertoire as tacts, LDs, or LRFFCs• The child does not attend to multiple verbal stimuli (S-deltas)• The child does not have sufficient training on verbal conditional discriminations• Verbal stimulus classes have not been established• Verbal response classes have not been established• Poor audience control• No automatic reinforcement for IV behavior• A punishment history for intraverbal behavior• An extinction history for intraverbal behavior


The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment• An Analysis of a Defective Listener Repertoire

• The behavior of the listener involves several independent repertoires• The listener as an audience for the verbal behavior of others• The listener’s nonverbal behavior evoked by the words of others• The listener’s covert verbal behavior evoked by the words of others (this part is actually

speaker behavior, but commonly and erroneously referred to as listener, or receptive,behavior.



Some Common Causes of an Absent, Weak, orDefective Listener Repertoire

• The speech of others does not function as a conditioned reinforcer• The speech of others does not function as an SD for attending• The child does not reinforce the verbal behavior of others• The child does not mediate reinforcement for the verbal behavior of others• The child has not become an SD for certain verbal behavior from others• The child has not received formal listener training• Scrolling get reinforced in listener training• Inadvertent prompts control correct responses (eye gazes, position, hand placement)



Some Common Causes of an Absent, Weak, orDefective Listener Repertoire

• The child has a weak conditional discrimination repertoire• Verbal stimuli does not evoke scanning (or attending to the array)• The child has been over conditioned with limited array• The child has been over conditioned with single stimulus and single response• Generalization training has not provided (stimulus and response classes)• The child stims with the materials• No LRFFC training has been provided• The curriculum is poorly sequenced

12



• Some common causes of an absent, weak, or defective visual perception and• matching-to-sample repertoire

• The child may have some type of vision impairment• The child has not received formal training on visual discrimination tasks• Adults have poor instructional control• The child stims with materials• The targeted visual tasks are out of developmental sequence (curriculum)• The child is prompt bound by position, body movement, eye or pointing

prompts, etc.• There is a reinforcement history for position preference, or specific response

patterns• Scrolling behavior gets reinforced• A verbal consequence like No is really an SD to pick another item



• Some common causes of an absent, weak, or defective visual perception and• matching-to-sample repertoire

• If no reinforcement is provided for first selection, the child quickly selects another item• There is a failure to scan visual arrays and comparisons efficiently• There is a failure to make conditional discriminations• Over conditioning with a small array (limited array variation)• The task is too easy because the comparison stimuli are very different from each other• Limited training with large arrays, scenes, and arrays in the natural environment• Limited training with similar stimuli in the array• Limited training with large arrays and similar stimuli in scenes and in the natural

environment



• Some common causes of an absent, weak, or defective echoic repertoire• Physiological variables (e.g., weak muscle control, severe illnesses, cerebral palsy)• Little or no training or encouragement of echoic responding has been provided• Weak automatic reinforcement for echoic and vocal behavior• Possible automatic punishment (or other forms of punishment) for vocal behavior• The child demonstrates a low rate of babbling or vocal play• Adults have poor instructional control• Vocal self-stimulation interferes with echoic development



• Some common causes of an absent, weak, or defective echoic repertoire• The child has weak MOs for social interaction with other people• The child doesn’t attend to vocal stimuli• The targeted vocal sounds, blends, and words are out of developmental sequence• The child has an aversive (failure) history regarding attempts to teach echoic behavior• Generalization training has not been provided• Repertoire too strong (echolalia, prompt bound)• Automatic reinforcement for out-of-context verbal responses (“Delayed echolalia”)

Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment andPlacement Program:

The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment• Potential causes of scrolling

• Responses that are first trained are not completely acquired (weak SD control)• Failure to identify that scrolling is occurring• The response is actually under a specific type of prompt rather than the target SD

• The amount of discrimination training is insufficient• New words/signs are added too quickly• Scrolling gets intermittently reinforced• New stimuli and new responses are too similar• For mands, new MOs and specific reinforcement are similar to the earlier ones• Maintenance and generalization trials are insufficient• Failure to reinforce first wrong response evokes the next response• Curriculum is out of sequence• Scrolling is less work than discriminating



• Instructional control/non-compliance (escape and avoidance)• Many children with autism have learned to emit a variety of negative and disruptive

behaviors to avoid or terminate demands placed upon them (CMO-R)• These behaviors range from mild behaviors such as looking away or not responding, to

severe aggressive and self-injurious behaviors• However, the function of the behaviors is often the same: to escape from doing things

they don’t want to do (e.g., hair brushing, car seats, instructional demands), or any stimulithat indicate that unwanted things or activities are coming (avoidance) (e.g., bedtime,turning off the TV, table tasks)

• These types of behaviors are common in typically developing children, but can becomequite severe for a child with autism

• There are a number of potential causes for instructional control problems. It is the job ofthe behavior analyst conduct a descriptive and/or functional analysis to determine thespecific cause for each individual child

13


The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment• Potential causes of noncompliant behaviors

• Avoidance or escape of the demand is (negatively) reinforced (not followed through)• The child has a long history of successful avoidance and escape behavior• Extinction bursts are reinforced• Intermittent reinforcement develops persistence• Positive reinforcement also follows the negative behaviors• Not enough reinforcement is provided for compliance• Effective reinforcers are not identified, or they cannot compete with negative reinforcement• The demand is too high (e.g., task expectations and curriculum issues)• The demands are unclear or vague• The demand require that the child give up powerful reinforcers• The demands are in the form of threats (coercive)• The steps to successful compliance are too large• The intervention program is inconsistent

Thank You!

For more information on verbal behaviorand links to other material go to:

www.marksundberg.com

A New Generation of Verbal Behavior The Importance of ... Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and...

Documents

Transcript of A New Generation of Verbal Behavior The Importance of ... Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and...