Deb: Hi.
I'm Deb Rauner, your presenter today.
I currently am a Verbal Behavior Trainer,
as well as an Autism Consultant.
Formerly, I was a Special Education teacher,
as well as a Behavior Specialist.
Today, I want you to walk away from this webinar
with the knowledge of what verbal operants are,
how to teach new skills in the natural environment
using Errorless Teaching Procedures,
and to some new strategies on generalizing skills
into the natural environment.
Many students learn language skills
in a verbal behavior format.
This format uses verbal operants which are
the building blocks of language and learning skills.
We can connect these skills to the natural environment
through generalization strategies.
We can also use this format to teach a variety of skills
right in the natural environment.
All of these strategies together
will aid the student's successful participation
in a variety of environments.
So let's get started.
Let's learn how to use
Natural Environment Training strategies
as an extension of a verbal behavior program.
All of the forms we look at
are available to you electronically.
Let's do a quick review of verbal behavior instruction.
Verbal behavior is any behavior
that communicates your needs to anyone.
This includes using vocal speech, using pictures,
sing language, or an augmentative device.
Verbal behavior instruction
is based on the work of B. F. Skinner
and utilizes the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis.
Applied Behavior Analysis is one of the most evidence based
sets of strategies for instruction.
Is it based on the format of looking at antecedents
and consequences that surround a skill or behavior.
When we talk about behavior, we aren't just referring
to appropriate or inappropriate social skills,
for example hitting or screaming.
Behavior means anything that a student does.
It can be language, academic and functional skill,
as well as social skill-related.
We use verbal behavior instruction
because it has many benefits.
It uses effective teaching methods
that are fun for the student.
Staff also notices that many inappropriate behaviors
are reduced when using errorless teaching strategies.
Most importantly, verbal behavior instruction
helps students be successful in a variety of settings,
including one to one sessions, in the classroom,
at home, and in the community.
Verbal behavior instruction
is based on teaching verbal operants.
B. F. Skinner tells us that the major components of language
are verbal operants.
Tacts are labels of objects, pictures,
actions, or properties.
Imitation skills are copying someone's actions.
Receptive discrimination tasks involve choosing objects
or pictures from an array.
Receptive listener responding is simply following
any direction or touching your clothing, body parts, etc.
FFC stands for answering questions by choosing
or labeling items based on their function, feature or class.
Intraverbals are skills where the student answers,
questions, fils in the blank, or converses with others
without a visual cue.
Vocal imitation or a coex is simply repeating sounds,
words, or phrases.
Matching or visual performance skills
involve matching, sorting, sequencing and puzzles.
The last operant is manding,
which is requesting items, actions or information.
It's time for our first polling question.
Which statement is most correct?
A, verbal behavior instruction is only done
by speech therapists.
B, verbal behavior instruction requires a student
to be vocal.
C, verbal behavior is a program based
on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis.
Or D, verbal behavior is not made up of building blocks
of language called operants.
The correct answer is C.
Verbal behavior instruction was developed by B. F. Skinner
using his principles of Applied Behavior Analysis.
Verbal behavior instruction can occur in the classroom
during intensive teaching sessions.
Verbal behavior instruction can also occur
in the natural environment in two ways.
The first is to initially teach the skill
using Errorless Teaching Procedures
while in the natural environment.
The second is to work on generalizing skills
in the natural environment.
There are two types of skill items in errorless teaching.
The first are known items,
which means previously mastered items.
Known items can be found on assessments.
The second type is target items,
which are those items that are targeted for mastery.
We use errorless teaching when teaching target skills.
80% of all trials in intensive teaching
should usually be easy or known skills.
20% of all trials are usually target skills
and/or correction of errors.
The errorless teaching procedure involves
the use of a sequence of four trials.
The first is the prompt trial.
We ask the question and then quickly prompt
the correct response.
Next is the transfer trial.
You ask the same question again,
this time without a prompt.
The purpose of the transfer trial is to fade the prompt.
Then comes the distract trial.
Here, the teacher asks one or two known items.
These are used to place easy responses in the sequence.
Finally, there is the check trial,
where you ask the original question.
This serves to assess or check whether the student remains
able to demonstrate the skill after some easy known skills.
Let's look at errorless teaching in the natural environment.
The student in this video is a typically developing child
but the purpose of the video is to show
how the procedure is used in teaching the skill
of putting a cap in a dishwasher in the natural environment.
Watch for the sequence of four trials.
Prompt, transfer, distract, and check.
-: Are you ready?
Put it in.
What color is that?
-: Red.
-: What color is that one?
-: Yellow.
-: What's this whole thing called?
-: Dishwasher.
-: Put it in.
Nice job, Samson.
You put the cups in.
Deb: Time for our second polling question.
It's a simple true or false question.
You can use Errorless Teaching both
in Intensive Teaching Sessions
and in the Natural Environment.
The correct answer is true.
You can use the technique of Errorless Teaching
both when working with a student
during Intensive Teaching Sessions,
as well as when teaching a new target skill
in the natural environment.
Next, let's begin to think about instruction
in the natural environment
as you watch the video on the next slide.
(soft guitar music)
-: Where's the maracas?
There they are.
Where's the drums?
-: Natural environment training, ensuring that our students
can respond not only in structured settings,
but in their natural environment,
that the skills taught in the structured setting
can be generalized to all environments
that they are exposed to.
(child mumbling)
-: No, no, pause.
Narrator: We make sure that all classrooms
are putting emphasis on natural environment teaching
and what this means is that they're systematically planning
for opportunities to teach students to respond
outside of the intensive teaching sessions.
-: Dong.
-: Dong!
-: Down the road what we're looking for is to have
the students to be able to respond in different environments
outside of that classroom, being able to respond
when they're in the cafeteria, out in the playground,
out in the community.
Every activity is an opportunity
to teach the verbal operants, to teach the behaviors
that we're trying to hail from the students.
-: What's this called? -: Apple!
-: What's an apple, Andrew? -: A fruit.
-: Good and what color is it, Dennis?
-: Red.
-: Good and what is it, Tommy?
-: Apple. -: Good!
-: Natural environment training ensures
that the students can utilize those skills learned
in the intensive teaching,
or more direct instruction setting in their everyday lives.
Announcer: For more information,
visit the PaTTAN website.
Deb: We know that often students with autism
have difficulties with generalizing skills,
taught one on one in the classroom
into the natural environment.
To aid generalization, the skills learned
should be intentionally applied across settings
and individuals to help the child interact meaningfully
with their environment.
Generalizing verbal behavior skills involves
the student using their skills across time,
across settings, across staff and across stimuli.
Some strategies that we can use to work
on generalizing known skills taught in a one on one setting
into the natural environment
include natural environment training plans,
verbal modules, small group instruction,
using books and magazines, job boxes,
or sometimes referred to as structured teaching
and working walks.
Let's first look at a variety
of natural environment training or NET lesson plans
for a variety of learners and then a NET plan
for secondary students.
Then, we will look at a verbal module example,
followed by a small group lesson plan template.
Finally, we will look at a NET data sheet
to help with documentation.
Remember, you will be able to access
these forms electronically.
The first example of a NET lesson plan
uses the verbal operants to plan instruction.
In this case, with doll play.
The example also looks at early, intermediate
and advanced learners.
As you look at the skills, you can see the difference
in the types of questions based on difficulty.
Having a lesson plan like this allows all staff,
volunteers and parents to know what skills to work on
with a particular student.
The goal is to take skills
that the student has already mastered
and use them in a new environment with new materials,
and perhaps with new adults or peers.
While this is an example of a play skill,
the format can be used for a variety of skills
for any age level.
This slide is a template that you can use
to plan a lesson in the natural environment
for an individual student or several students.
It is based on using verbal operants
to generalize known skills to new activities.
This is an example of a lesson plan template
being used for a secondary student
as he works on generalizing a variety of skills
in home living, vocational, community
and leisure activities.
Verbal modules are another way of presenting
a variety of verbal operant skills using everyday materials
in the student's natural environment.
Verbal modules help you understand language acquisition
by showing you how one vocabulary word can be used
in numerous verbal operants.
This is an example of a verbal module for the word dog.
As you interact with the dog, which could be an actual dog,
or a toy dog, you can work on a variety of verbal operants.
This is an easy way to work on generalizing
those previously learned skills in a new environment.
Verbal modules are especially easy
for parents to use at home.
Generalization training can occur with one student
or several students in a small group situation.
This form allows you to plan for several students
in a natural environment activity.
Documentation of your student
being able to generalize skills
in natural environment settings
is important, since generalization is often a weakness.
This NET data collection sheet is an easy way
to document skills that happen outside
of the one on one setting.
As opportunities present themselves
during the course of the day,
staff can mark yes or no if the student used the skill.
An example might be the skill
of the student returning greetings.
As various people during the day greet the student,
you could mark yes or no
if the student returned the greeting.
Books and magazines are a great way
to work on generalization of skills.
Books and magazines provide a visual field
in which to have students practice known skills.
You can use them individually,
or you can use them with groups of students
by adapting the questions to early,
intermediate and advanced learners.
Once again, we are working on using different materials
in different situations with different individuals
to work on the generalization piece.
Books and magazines meet all of those criteria.
You can work on generalizing verbal behavior skills
using a story.
This plan format is similar to the NET lesson plan
with different questions for different learners.
The early, intermediate and advanced learners.
The questions are based on verbal operants.
When first using this strategy,
you may want to list the questions on note cards
to help guide you in your instruction.
After a while, you will become adapt at knowing
which types of questions are appropriate
for your individual students.
This is an example of using the interactive story format
to work on generalization of skills with early,
intermediate and advanced learner questions
that relate to the story.
Once a student has mastered a skill item,
adults can have the student practice the skill
through independent activities,
sometimes known as job box activities,
or structured teach activities.
Job box activities allow the student to generalize
a known skill to new materials and settings.
Job box activities encourage student independence.
Another great strategy to work on generalizing skills
is through the use of working walks.
Working walks provide opportunities for students to practice
known skills in natural environments
and during everyday activities.
Staff can use items that are already in the environment,
such as bulletin boards, signs and people
as they ask questions relating to the verbal operants.
Staff can also place their own materials on walls,
lockers, doors, etc.
Many times students go for walks
to help them regulate or calm down.
A working walk can make that time more productive.
This slide is an example of a brainstorming piece
I asked staff to do in their school setting.
I asked them to find items as they walked around the school
that related to the verbal operants.
As you can see, they came up with many examples of questions
that they could ask as their students navigated
around the school.
This is a template to use
when planning working walk lessons.
You can list the specific skills for your student to work on
as they go around the school, home, community,
or work environment.
Make sure and vary the routes and activities
that the student participates in on a working walk
to encourage flexibility.
This is an example of different working walks tasks
that staff had put up in a hallway.
As you can see, you can work on language or academic skills
in the working walk format.
Here's more examples of working walk tasks.
I like how staff has several examples
of a question in the envelope,
so that the student really has to look at the question,
not just memorize a response.
This is our last polling question.
Which of the following is not a generalization activity
discussed for verbal behavior programs?
A, working walks.
B, touch math.
C, books.
D, job boxes.
The correct answer is B, touch math is not
one of the generalization activities discussed
to help students use their acquired verbal behavior skills.
So, let's put it all together.
Good programming for your students
should have several components.
Those include intensive teaching of language skills
and academics with verbal behavior instruction,
intensive teaching of functional living skills,
including social skills and finally,
the generalization of skills
through natural environment training.
To make sure that you are including all of the components
of effective instruction for your student
is student plan is helpful,
is student plan incorporates verbal behavior skills
that focus on language from the ABLLS-R
or the VB map.
It also incorporates academic skills,
functional living skills from a curricula like the AFLS.
It also will include job boxes, as well as some
natural environment training activities for generalization.
This is the example of the front page of a student plan
that includes skills taught in the verbal behavior format
at the table, as well as skills taught
in the natural environment using errorless teaching skills.
This is the second page of the student plan
that lists job box skills, social skills, scheduling, etc.
The highlighted items are priorities to begin with
in the student's instruction.
The template of the student plan includes locations to list,
verbal behavior, language,
or AFLS skills taught at the table.
AFLS skills taught in the natural environment,
social skills instruction, academic instruction,
job boxes and natural environment activities
for generalization, boxes for schedules, communication,
and other items.
This is the blank student plan template page one.
This is the second page of the blank student plan template.
In conclusion, we know that many of our students
with language and learning disorders, like autism,
do not automatically generalize previously learned skills
to a variety of environments with new materials,
or with new staff.
Therefore, the need to purposefully plan
for generalization activities
within the student's day is imperative.
What you will find is that generalization activities
are fun to plan and fun for the students.
Have a good time programming this important piece
for your students.
You will have access to many
of the natural environment training templates
that we looked at today.
These include a NET lesson plan template,
small group NET lesson plan template,
verbal module template,
NET data collection template,
working walk planning template,
working walk student plan template,
and individual student plan template.