●  M e t h o d o l o g y

“Researches about verbal behavior analysis …prove that well-trained professionals

can teach children to communicate more effectively de lo que than ever” 

Dr. Douglas Greer, Professor of the University of Columbia, United States.

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Centro Al-Mudaris

Behavior analysis is a methodology for the study of the processes of acquisition, maintenance and behavior changes and all kinds of skills. As such, it is a way of analyzing psychological processes that includes the study of the variables involved both in simple behaviors and in the complex behavior that determine language and mental processes.

Behavior analysis is characterized by studying individuals and stressing the description of procedures and environmental conditions that functionally determine the studied behavior. Theories consist of descriptions of relations among objective factors observed in a situation (interpretations about supposed mental phenomena not observed objectively are not achieved). This simplicity and the so close interconnection between the theory and the world give to the behavior analysis a great strength to interpret people acts and to help people to acquire new skills and to modify ineffective habits. That is why it has such an impressive impact in the applied field.

Behavior analysis has a great impact in all the areas where it is applied. These areas go from special education to universitary education, therapy of psychological disorders and companies' administration and management. Otherwise, it is applied to all kind of people: from children with autism to children with a normal development with problems with reading, understanding, attention…. etc. and people who want to stop smoking or improve their organization habits. It is also applied to all age ranks: From babies a few months old to old people of all ages.

Those interested in knowing the original sources of which terms that define the applied behavior analysis are taken can consult: Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1973). Algunas dimensiones actuales del análisis conductual aplicado. En R. Ulrich, T. Stachnick & J. Mabry, (comp.), Control de la conducta humana (Vol. 1, pp. 26-37). Mexico: Trillas. (Original document published in J Applied Behav Anal 1968;1:91-7).

●  Pervasive Developmental Disorder

Autism is a disorder of neurological development that affects to the ability of learning communicative and social interaction skills. Many children with autism do not speak, other children present a limited verbal ability; the minority shows an almost normal language. Most of the people with autism have problems regarding to social skills and the interaction with other people. They also have stereotyped behaviors or repetitive habits. People with autism are very different among them and the border among the different types of autism and between autism and other developmental disorders is unclear.

Autism has a biological genetic origin. However, the specific causes of it are unknown. It is possible that the origin is different for each person or that it changes from some people with autism to other people. Anyway, the origin is biological. It is known that it is not caused by a parents' attitude or by environmental factors derived from psychological interaction between the child and their mother.

Genetic anomalies are detected in many people with autism. Changes can affect many gens of, at least, 15 chromosomes; however, each person with autism has 3 gens altered. Despite the genetic origin, chromosomal anomalies are not hereditary, only in a very low proportion: less than 5%.

●  Effective Treatments for Autism

A fair number of treatments for autism are offered. Many treatments do not have showed effectiveness in any important aspect of autism; some treatments have negative effects; other procedures have showed specific positive effects. The only treatments with a proven effectiveness in a period of two or more years are those based on Behavioral Applied Analysis. Those people interested in knowing more about effective treatments for autism can consult the great chapter of González, Williams and Pérez-González, 2003.

Treatments for autism based on Behavioral Applied Analysis

“Behavioral interventions are based on theoretical suppositions that assume that (a) learning principles are universal and they are applied equally to everybody, classified with austism or not, and (b) techniques derived from these principles can be applied independently regardless of whether autism etiology is known or not. These suppositions contrast with theories based on supposed mechanisms. (...) Behavior analysts consider autism as a syndrome composed of lacks and excess of certain behaviors with neurological basis, but these behaviors are changeable as consequence of environmental interactions planned carefully. The treatment for people with autism consists then in applying procedures drawed from basic researches about learning. There are many procedures that are applied individually according to the skills of each person in each moment and the way they have learned very basic skills. In other words, from a functional analysis.”* 

* Text of González Menéndez, A. M., Williams, G. y Pérez-González, L. A. (2003). Guía de tratamientos psicológicos eficaces para el autismo. In M. Pérez Álvarez, J. R. Fernández Hermida, C. Fernández Rodríguez e I. Amigo Vázquez (Eds.), Guía de tratamientos psicológicos eficaces III: Infancia y adolescencia (pp. 17-56). Madrid: Pirámide. P. 26-27. 

There are more than 25 publications in scientific journals that show the effectiveness of treatment package based on Behavioral Analysis. Effective interventions have these features:

·      They are intensive: They are carried out during 25 hours per week or more. The typical intervention is made with a teacher for each child.

·      They begin early: The most effective interventions have been carried out when they were started before the child was 4.

·    They are behavioral: This is the key of effective interventions. This feature includes the use of a long series of effective procedures found in researches published in journals of Behavioral Analysis, especially in Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. He interventions are carried out by teachers and technicians trained specifically for the right implementation of the techniques. Teachers and technicians are trained and supervised in a regular way by behavior analysts who have a well built formation, both theoretical and practical, often with a master's degree in Behavioral Analysis. These teachers and technicians are supervised by researchers with a PhD in behavioral applied analysis.

·      Other factors can contribute to the success of the intervention, as parents' active participation.

●  The Analysis of Verbal Behavior

The analysis of verbal behavior is based on the methodology of behavioral analysis. By means of the behavior analysis we do a functional language analysis. Verbal behavior is more than giving vocal answers as a topography or answering way: the really important issue is the verbal function. We focus in teaching verbal operants allowing students to develop more complex skills, thus becoming more independent.

From the book Verbal Behavior written by Skinner and published in 1957, a series of technical terms were adopted to name verbal operants like echoic behavior, mands, tacts, intraverbals, autoclitics and textual behavior like principal verbal functions.

In the last 25 years, there have been a huge proliferation of researches to reach procedures that allow students with pervasive developmental delays and with important language problems to develop language functional skills. With the technology of behavior analysis and with the increasing knowledge of behavior analysts many children with autism are developing verbal skills. Many of these children learn to speak and to use language with multiple functions. Other children don't develop speech so widely although they profit from teaching curricula based on the analysis of verbal behavior to learn many verbal functions with answers that replace speech.

In the last decade, researches about verbal behavior head mainly towards the detection of the milestones of the verbal behavior development and the verbal abilities, together with promoting the emerging language, that is to say that children use language that haven't been taught directly but that depends on how and what they have learnt explicitly with verbal function. These abilities allow then to interact in a flexible  and varied way in a constantly changing world.