Verbal Behavior and Communication Flashcards

Functional communication training (FCT) teaches clients to:

Answer: Use an appropriate communicative response that accesses the same reinforcer as the problem behavior

FCT replaces problem behavior by teaching a communicative response (e.g., sign, PECS, speech) that earns the same maintaining reinforcer.

A child has mastered tacting objects but struggles to answer 'what do you do with a spoon?' This deficit is in which verbal operant?

Answer: Intraverbal

Answering questions about object functions requires intraverbal behavior — a verbal response to a verbal stimulus without point-to-point correspondence.

Stimulus generalization in verbal behavior occurs when:

Answer: A learned verbal response occurs to novel but similar stimuli

Stimulus generalization means the verbal behavior trained with one stimulus extends to untrained stimuli that share similar properties.

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is PRIMARILY designed to teach which verbal operant first?

Answer: Manding

PECS Phase I–III focuses on initiating requests (mands) by exchanging pictures to obtain desired items, leveraging motivating operations.

Which augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system uses a grid display of symbols the client touches to generate speech output?

Answer: Speech-generating device (SGD)

Speech-generating devices (SGDs) produce synthesized or recorded speech when the user activates symbols on a display, supporting expressive communication.

Verbal behavior intervention in ABA differs from traditional language therapy primarily because it:

Answer: Focuses on the function of language (operant class) rather than topography alone

ABA-based verbal behavior intervention analyzes and targets the functional verbal operants (mand, tact, intraverbal) rather than only the form of language.