Skinner Verbal Behavior Discussion

Skinner Verbal Behavior Discussion

Skinner was among the earliest scientists to describe how language is learned. He was the mastermind of behaviorism and accounted for the development of language through environmental influence (Miltenberger, 2015). In other words, he argued that language is learned from an individual’s surrounding environment. In his view, children learn language by linking words with meaning based on tenets of behavioral reinforcement (Miltenberger, 2015). He added that children would start making correct utterances positively when they discover the communicative worth of phrases and words.

According to Skinner, there are six basic verbal operants: transcription, textual, intraverbal, echoic, tact, and mand (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2019). Transcription refers to a verbal operant that has spelling and writing words spoken to a person (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2019). The elements of this operant are the exact spelling of the word spoken and the letter production. For instance, the controlling antecedent is when a teacher tells a student to “Running”; the consequence is the student writing “Run.”

Textual refers to reading without really understanding what is read. Understanding what is being read relies on other operants like receptive language and intraverbal behavior (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2019). For instance, when a student sees the word ‘Concert’ on a street post, the consequence is when they say “Concert.” Further, an intraverbal verbal operant is when one differentially gives a response to the verbal behavior of another person (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2019). This happens, for example, when one asks, “What are we eating for dinner?” and another person says, “Rice and beans.”

Mand refers to control by the wants or needs of the speaker. Cooper, Heron, & Heward (2019) derived this word from countermand, demand, and command. In this operant, a specific reinforcement is given. For instance, in a situation where a child has not slept and says, “I am sleepy, mommy.” The response would be the mother putting the child to bed to sleep. Moreover, tact is a verbal operant used to name actions, events, and objects with which the speaker has straight contact via any sense. For example, a child may see a car and, in response, say, “a car.” Lastly, echoic is when a child repeats what another person has mentioned. They may repeat vocal behavior, phrases, or words (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2019). For instance, a teacher may say ‘stop,’ and the child would, in response, say, “stop.”

References

Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2019). Applied Behavior Analysis. Pearson UK.

Miltenberger, R. G. (2015). Behavior Modification: Principles and Procedures. Cengage Learning.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

D 365

You work at a clinic that focuses on teaching verbal behavior to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ages 3-5. Each time you hire a new staff member, you have to train the new staff on the basics of verbal behavior. Compose a document that you can share with new staff as a “cheat sheet” on the basics of verbal behavior. You do not have to attach an actual document, instead, paste your response into the Discussion Board. Your “cheat sheet” for staff should cover the following:

Skinner Verbal Behavior Discussion

.A brief description of Skinner’s view of how language is learned.

A description of each of Skinner’s six elementary verbal operants (mand, tact, echoic, intraverbal, textual, and transcription). Your description must include the controlling antecedent and consequence.

A novel, real-life example for each verbal operant. These should be new examples and not examples that you read in your textbook or that were shared by your instructor.