The Verbal Behavior Approach: How to Teach Children With Autism and Related Disorders | 
 enlarge | Authors: Mary Barbera, Tracy Rasmussen
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 7307
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 199
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 1843108526
Dewey Decimal Number: 618.9285882
EAN: 9781843108528
ASIN: 1843108526
Publication Date: May 15, 2007
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Book Description
The Verbal Behavior (VB) approach is a form of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), that is based on B.F. Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior and works particularly well with children with minimal or no speech abilities. In this book Mary Lynch Barbera draws on her own experiences as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and also as a parent of a child with autism to explain VB and how to use it. This step-by-step guide provides an abundance of information about how to help children develop better language and speaking skills, and also explains how to teach non-vocal children to use sign language. An entire chapter focuses on ways to reduce problem behavior, and there is also useful information on teaching toileting and other important self-help skills, that would benefit any child. This book will enable parents and professionals unfamiliar with the principles of ABA and VB to get started immediately using the Verbal Behavior approach to teach children with autism and related disorders.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
Great introduction to ABA / VB January 28, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am an ABA/VB professional as well as an author of a book on the topic of the Verbal Behavior Approach to ABA. I have met Mary only once but I have read her book and found it to be an excellent introduction to the science of behaviorism and particularly to the Verbal Behavior Approach to ABA. If you are currently trying to decide the best way to approach the education of the child with autism in your life or if you have already found the benefits of ABA and want to see the science of Behaviorism through the eyes of someone versed in Skinner's analysis of Verbal Behavior, this book is a great start. Once you have the basics down, you can continue your education of VB with "Educate Toward Recovery: Turning the Tables on Autism" A Teaching Manual for the Verbal Beahvior Approach to ABA also available here on AmazonEducate Toward Recovery: Turning the Tables on Autism.
A Must-Read January 7, 2008
This book is easy and enjoyable to read. It explains, in simple terms, what VB is and gives you guidelines which are easy to follow. Useful for both parents and professionals.
From a Mother's Perspective December 15, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
As a mother of three children on the spectrum, I want to share how much this book has changed our lives forever. Hope is a powerful feeling and one given to us from this book.
We were going along following the "standard" recommendations of the professionals working with our children on the spectrum without much change for over the past two years. Sure, we had some changes, but not like the ones we were about to experience using the Verbal Behavior Approach.
This book was very easy to read and did a great job of detailing exactly how to do what we were reading about. For us, the concepts were all completely new and a totally different way of intervening. Having Mary Barbara's personal story throughtout the book helped make it more real for us as a parents.
This book has given us the power to help our children ourselves. No longer do we have to follow recommendations from others that just don't seem "quite right" for our children. We have the tools to make a difference ourselves. The therapists we do have that work with our children, are much happier also and feel a better sense of direction now. They have told me how much more hopeful they feel now having the resources they needed. They report that following the Verbal Behavior Approach has changed them professionally as well.
We have spent the past few months working through behavior problems with our children. I am glad to report that for my middle son, age 4, 20+ meltdowns a day is literally down to none or an average of 3 a week. What a difference! We have our lives back! Each child on the spectrum is different of course, but I just wanted to share one personal detail in this review to give specific evidence of the changes we are experiencing.
We feel so much closer and more connected to our kids. I don't know what more a parent with a child on the spectrum wants. We are forever grateful. I highly recommend this book to anyone out there who wants to help their children, clients, family member, and self grow and learn. I recommend this book to parents on the spectrum and parents of non-spectrum kids as well.
We still have a long road ahead of us, but we are up for the journey having the resources we need now. (This book stays by my side and I refer to it daily.)
I highly recommend this book- an excellent tool! December 13, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
As a Board Certified Associate Behavior Analyst, I find myself recommending this book to my clients on a daily basis. Applied Behavior Analysis is a very complex field. Barbera takes some pretty difficult concepts and shows us how to apply them in an interesting and easy to understand format.
Applied Behavior Analytic techniques are tried and true interventions, backed by decades of scientifically validated (and replicated)research. I noticed in the review by Tara, she recommended against ABA techniques in favor of developmental approaches. While it was extremely interesting to read her review from the perspective of a High Functioning woman with Autism, I would like to reiterate that ABA is backed by decades of research and the importance of intensive behavioral intervention for individuals with autism cannot be ignored. Tara mentioned the importance of teaching communication-- this is covered in depth in Chapter 5 of the book. She also mentioned the importance of teaching a child to be interested in her and her actions-- I'd recommend re-reading Chapter 4 on reinforcement and pairing. Chapter 10 discusses using the child's motivation during Natural Environment Teaching (NET). Also, the ABLLS can be used as an assessment and curriculum guide so you can be sure you are teaching skills in a developmentally appropriate sequence.
Again, this book is an excellent guide for parents and clinicians to use. I'm very impressed with it and recommend this book to all!!!!
 I am much less enthusiastic... December 11, 2007
26 out of 43 found this review helpful
because I used to use ABA with children. Then I found out that 1. Children were more interested in communicating with me when I was communicating with them in ways they could relate to, and 2. ABA skips developmental skills that are needed earlier so that an action becomes meaninful later. If you are one of the many who thinks ABA is a flawless technique, you probably won't like this review.
There is no sense in teaching children labels for rewards if those labels will never be used to actually communicate with you. I have seen dozens of children who can label "red truck", "green circle", and etc. across the ABA table... who never speak to people outside that setting, never show any desire to use language to communicate. They have the labels, but have no idea what they should be used for.
Typical children have the desire to communicate BEFORE they have the labels we call words for everything they want in their world. This is the source of many toddler fits - a desire for something that they are unable to effectively communicate. Contrast this with an Autistic child who has yet to recognize other people in his environment, who throws fits because the air conditioning unit is too loud for his sensitive ears. Think on the desire to communicate, and whether you would like to be able to do that with your child.
I now use a DIR/Floortime (Greenspan) approach in conjunction with Communicating Partners. I look at the developmental level the child is on, and I interact with the child on his/her level, then move my actions up a step and try to persuade the child to come with me. This might mean that I sit next to the child twisting yarn with him for hours before I move it up a notch and try to make it interactive by starting to twist his piece of yarn and hoping he'll twist mine back. The point is, the child is actually interested in ME and my ACTIONS, not in the cookie he knows I have on my side of desk.
I get children interested in interacting with me, not just interested in obtaining a reinforcer. Now, how many typically-developing children need you to hold a cookie up in front of your face to focus on you? Not very many. Why should this be a goal with a child just because s/he is autistic?
I am not interested in running experiments with Pavlov and Skinner. I am interested in having the children I work with grow up to be the best PEOPLE they can be, autistic or otherwise.
I, by the way, am High Functioning Autistic myself. I used echolalia as my primary form of interaction and communication until I was 8 years old. I spent most of my time in classrooms being ignored by teachers and children who were too neurotypical to understand me. I used to flap until my mother mentioned to my first grade teacher that I hated loud noise and then started receiving ruler whaps across the desk whenever I flapped (I transferred to picking my skin... now which hurts me worse?). What is ironic is that, as an adult, I first met other Autistic people. And they are the ones who have helped me start to understand and actually feel somewhat linked to humanity for the first time in my life.
If you want interested, involved children, please look at switching your program to something more humanistic, more developmental in its approach. Read Greenspan and MacArthur, and put your ABA books in the back of your library. I've had so much more success with developmental approaches that my old ABA books are gathering dust.
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