Mark L. Sundberg, Ph.D., BCBA-D (marksundberg)

1. The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment: An Analysis of 24 Learning and Language Barriers and Possible Intervention Strategies Mark L. Sundberg, Ph.D., BCBA-D (www.marksundberg.com)

2. Assessment of a Child’s Needs A formal assessment and behavioral analysis is essential for developing an intervention program Identify the operant level of the existing skills Compare those skills to those of a typically developing child Identify the language, social, behavioral, and learning barriers that are preventing more efficient learning The failure to conduct an appropriate assessment results in one of the biggest problems in programs that serve children with autism: An inappropriate curriculum

3. Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program:The VB-MAPP There are five components of the VB-MAPP The VB-MAPP: Milestones Assessment contains 170 verbal behavior milestones across 3 developmental levels (0-18 months, 18-30 months, 30-48 months) and 16 different verbal operants and related skills The VB MAPP: Barriers Assessment examines 24 common learning and language barriers faced by children with autism or other developmental disabilities The VB MAPP: Transition Assessment evaluates a child’s ability to learn in a less restrictive educational environment across 18 different skills

4. Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program:The VB-MAPP The VB-MAPP: Skills Task Analysis and Tracking provides a further breakdown of the 16 different skill areas in the form of a checklist containing over 900 specific skills The VB-MAPP: Placement and IEP Goals provides recommendations for program development for children based on their VB-MAPP profiles, and their specific scores for each of the 170 milestones and the 24 Barriers. In addition, over 200 IEP goals directly linked to the skills and barriers assessments, and the verbal behavior intervention program are provided

5. The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment It is important to find out what a child can do (The VB-MAPP Milestones Assessment), but it is also important to know what he can’t do, and analyze why he can’t do it The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment is a tool that is designed to identify and score 24 different learning and language acquisition barriers that may be affecting an individual child Once a specific barrier has been identified, a more detailed descriptive and/or functional analysis of that problem is required There are many ways that a verbal repertoire or related skill can become defective or impaired, and an individualized analysis will be necessary to determine what the nature of the problem is for a specific child, and what intervention program might be appropriate

6. The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment There are several different types of barriers that can affect learning and language development Strong and persistent negative behaviors that impede teaching and learning (e.g., tantrums, aggression, non-compliance) Verbal operants or related skills that are absent, weak, or in some way impaired (e.g., echolalia, rote intraverbals, mands that are really tacts) Social behavior and the speaker-listener dyad can also become impaired for a variety of reasons (e.g., limited motivation for social interaction, impaired mands, impaired listener skills)

7. The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment Fundamental barriers to learning that must be analyzed and ameliorated (e.g., the failure to generalize, weak motivators, prompt dependency) Specific behaviors that can compete with learning (e.g., self-stimulation, hyperactive behavior, or sensory defensiveness) Problems related to physical or biological barriers that must be overcome or accounted for in some way (e.g., articulation or motor imitation errors may be due to physical limitations, matching errors may be due to visual limitations, or listener errors may be related to hearing problems)

8. The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment 24 Common Learning and Language Acquisition Barriers Behavior problems Instructional control (escape/avoidance) Impaired mand Impaired tact Impaired motor imitation Impaired echoic (e.g., echolalia) Impaired matching-to-sample Impaired listener repertoires (e.g., LD, LRFFC)

9. The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment Common Learning and Language Acquisition Barriers Impaired intraverbal Impaired social skills Prompt dependency, long latencies Scrolling responses Impaired scanning skills Failure to make conditional discriminations (CDs) Failure to generalize Weak or atypical MOs

10. The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment Common Learning and Language Acquisition Barriers Response requirements weakens the MO Reinforcer dependent Self-stimulation Articulation problems Obsessive-compulsive behavior Hyperactivity Failure to make eye contact Sensory defensiveness

12. The VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment Scoring the VB-MAPP Barriers Form Rate the child on the VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment Form using a Likert-type scale of 0 to 4 A score of 0 or 1 would indicate that there are no significant barriers, and a formal intervention plan may not be required A score of 2, 3, or 4 would indicate that there is a barrier that probably should be addressed as part of the intervention program For some children the immediate focus of the intervention program should be on removing a particular barrier Common immediate barriers to remove involve instructional control, behavior problems, an impaired mand, and prompt dependency

15. Impaired Verbal Behavior A functional analysis of verbal behavior (Skinner, Chap 1) A behavioral analysis of words, phrases, and sentences emitted by children and adults with language delays Same basic principles of behavior as nonverbal behavior What is the source of control? These sources of control will often reveal that what appears to be a correct response in form is actually incorrect in function Might not be the same source of control observed in a typically developing child (e.g., asking “What’s your name”) Each verbal operant can be susceptible to unwanted sources of control

16. Impaired Verbal Behavior The behavior analyst must determine what the correct source of control should be, and how that source can be established The functional analysis of verbal behavior is on-going The failure to conduct such an analysis may result in rote or defective verbal repertoires that can become difficult to change This is how behavior analysis is different, this is what we do The primary focus today will be on the verbal operants, but many of the other barriers are directly related to impaired verbal behavior and will be covered in the workshop (e.g., demand kills the MO, scrolling, prompt dependency, failing to generalize, weak conditional discrimination skills)

17. Analysis of an Impaired Mand Repertoire A substantial number of children with autism have an absent, weak, or impaired mand repertoire Many of these same children have extensive tact and listener skills, as well as other elevated scores on the VB-MAPP Milestones Assessment Often, under these circumstances it is not uncommon to see the child engage in a tantrum or some other form of negative behavior as a mand

18. Analysis of an Impaired Mand Repertoire A word acquired under SD control may not automatically transfer to MO control The distinction between SD and MO antecedent control is not systematically incorporated into many of the popular language assessment and intervention programs designed for children with autism There are many potential causes of a defective mand repertoire and a functional analysis is necessary to determine the cause for an individual child Here are 50 possible causes of an impaired mand repertoire Most problems involve a combination of causes

19. Potential Causes of an Absent, Weak, or Impaired Mand Repertoire Limited mand training and limited opportunities to mand Mands are not required to obtain specific reinforcement Mand training is not part of the child’s early language training history Not enough manding trials and opportunities are provided each day

20. Potential Causes of an Absent, Weak, or Impaired Mand Repertoire Response form problems, and failing to try augmentative communication The target response form is too difficult for the child Shaping techniques are not used There is a limited availability of established imitative or echoic responses Can’t establish differential response topographies Articulation cannot be understood by listeners When a child has no or limited vocal behavior, sign language or PECS have not been tried Push for sentences too soon (e.g., “I want...please”)

21. Potential Causes of an Absent, Weak, or Impaired Mand Repertoire Impaired mands are established early Negative behavior functions as mands A single response topography functions as the mand (e.g., “more,” “please,” “this,” “mine,” “yes”) Inappropriate mands become established and become hard to eliminate (e.g., “Cup” as the mand for all drinks) Motivation (MO) does not control the response form

22. Intervention Strategies forEstablished Impaired Mands START OVER Use a trained professional Use the strongest MOs Use sign language Target 1, then ASAP, 2 specific response topographies Use standard prompt and fade techniques Use DRI and extinction for existing negative mand

23. Potential Causes of an Impaired Mand Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Mand curriculum problems Choosing the wrong words (signs or pictures) as the first mands to teach The mand training curriculum is poorly sequenced Mand training does not move beyond tangibles and manipulatives Mands are not incorporated into daily functional verbal behavior A small group of mands has a strong history of reinforcement (e.g., candy, juice, skittles)

24. Potential Causes of an Impaired Mand Repertoire and Intervention Strategies MO Problems Relevant MOs are not identified There is no current MO in effect for the targeted item Satiation effects weaken the MO MOs are all too similar (e.g., food, toys) Free or cheap access to reinforcers is available without manding The child has weak MOs in general The response requirement is too high and weakens the MO (specific barrier)

25. Potential Causes of an Impaired Mand Repertoire and Intervention Strategies MO Problems (cont.) Self-stimulation or obsessive behaviors compete with other MOs Failing to capture and create MOs No variation in captured or created MOs Weak MOs for verbal information MOs for social and peer manding are weak, and intervention is not provided MOs are too strong and the mand repertoire becomes too strong

26. Potential Causes of an Impaired Mand Repertoire and Intervention Strategies SD control (e.g., prompts) problems The response is prompt bound by physical, echoic, imitative, or intraverbal discriminative stimuli A verbal stimulus acquires control and blocks MO control A nonverbal stimulus acquires control and blocks MO control A relevant nonverbal stimulus is faded too soon (before solid MO control is established) Scrolling gets reinforced (specific barrier) Spontaneous mands are not fostered and never develop Manding does not come under the control of natural contingencies Poor audience control

27. Intervention Strategies forMand Scrolling START OVER Use a trained professional Use the strongest MOs Establish two specific response topographies, then three, etc. Possibly use one response as a tact Echoic, imitation, & LDs won’t work as the second topography, intraverbal responses with signs will (e.g., “sign book”) Use standard prompt and fade techniques Don’t fade out the object too soon (multiple control) Use DRI and extinction for existing negative mand

28. Potential Causes of an Impaired Mand Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Consequence problems Inappropriate manding is reinforced Specific reinforcement is not used Reinforcement is delayed Differential reinforcement with extinction is not systematically used Manding is punished Manding persistence is not established via intermittent reinforcement

29. Potential Causes of an Impaired Mand Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Generalization problems Mands only required and reinforced in a specific setting, time, or with specific people MO generalization training is not provided Manding response generalization training is not provided Overgeneralization

30. An Analysis of an Impaired Tact Repertoire The tact repertoire is less susceptible to becoming defective than the mand or intraverbal, due in part to the nature of the controlling variables for the tact Nonverbal stimulus control is more measurable and accessible, and in general, much clearer than motivational control (mand), and verbal stimulus control (intraverbal) It is often the case that the wrong nonverbal stimulus acquires control of a tact For example, when teaching tacts related to verbs, the goal is that the specific moving nonverbal stimulus evokes a specific response, not the object related to the movement

31. An Analysis of an Impaired Tact Repertoire Some children learn to emit a word that is a verb in form but not in function, as in the response “drinking juice” when just shown a cup, or “throwing ball” when shown a ball Similar problems can be observed in efforts to teach tacts related to other parts of speech such as prepositions and adjectives (e.g., “above” and “below”; “big” and “little”) Gone unchecked, these tacting errors can be difficult to change and can become the source of other verbal problems later in training, such as intraverbal rote responding There are many potential causes of a defective tact repertoire and a behavioral analysis is necessary Here are 30 possible causes of an impaired tact repertoire Most problems involve a combination of causes

32. Potential Causes of an Absent or Weak Tact Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Limited tact training and other barriers Formal tact training has not been provided, but is necessary Not enough tact trials are provided each day Limited tacting in the natural environment Other barriers such as instructional control and behavior problems dominate the educational day

33. Potential Causes of an Absent or Weak Tact Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Response form problems The target response form is too difficult for the child Articulation is unintelligible by listeners Shaping techniques are not used There is a limited availability of established imitative or echoic responses Can’t establish differential response topographies Augmentative communication has not been tried Sentences and carrier phrases are overemphasized too soon

34. Potential Causes of an Absent or Weak Tact Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Tact curriculum problems The general progression of tact development in typically developing children is ignored, thus the curriculum is poorly sequenced (e.g., adjectives before nouns are firmly established) Nonfunctional or irrelevant tacts targeted Single stimulus and single response tacts have been over conditioned Limited training with multiple SDs and multiple response tacting (e.g., noun-noun, noun-verb) Tacts are not transferred to other verbal operants (e.g., mands, IVs) Failure to analyze complexities of tacts involving prepositions, pronouns, adjectives, private events, social behavior, etc.

35. Potential Causes of an Absent or Weak Tact Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Stimulus control problems Tacting is prompt bound by echoic, imitative, or other SDs Scrolling through targeted tacts gets reinforced The wrong source of control is established (e.g., tacting verbs or emotions from pictures) Metonymical tacts are established and reinforced (e.g., tacting by function or association)

36. Potential Causes of an Absent or Weak Tact Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Stimulus control problems Verbal plus nonverbal conditional discriminations (CDs) are not established (e.g., verbal stimuli do not establish a feature of nonverbal stimuli as an SD: as in IV-Tact CDs) No spontaneous tacting or tacting in the natural environment due to additional variables present during formal training (e.g., CMO-Reflexive, contextual prompts)

37. Potential Causes of an Absent or Weak Tact Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Consequence problems Tacting is not reinforced Tacting is punished Excessive or inappropriate tacting gets reinforced Tacting not reinforced by natural or automatic contingencies Intermittent reinforcement is not used to establish persistence

38. Potential Causes of an Absent or Weak Tact Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Generalization problems Generalization training is not provided Stimulus classes are not established Response classes are not established

39. An Analysis of the VP-MTS Repertoire Many children with autism do well on visual discrimination tasks because they are usually easier than verbal tasks However, some children do not do well on these tasks, and a more detailed analysis of the child and the task is required Visual skills, especially MTS, are often more complex than they might appear MTS requires that a child attend to the sample stimulus, scan an array of comparison stimuli, and select a matching item based on some specific criteria (i.e., identical, non identical, arbitrary, association, sequences, patterns, designs, and categories) These skills involve a conditional discrimination where the first stimulus (the sample) should establish a second stimulus as a discriminative stimulus (SD)

40. Potential Causes of an Absent or Weak VP-MTS Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Physical limitations Some type of vision impairment Poor muscle tone, fine motor control, or CP Limited VP-MTS training No formal training on visual discrimination tasks Instructional control and behavior problems dominate The child stims with materials

41. Potential Causes of an Absent or Weak VP-MTS Repertoire and Intervention Strategies VP-MTS curriculum problems The targeted visual tasks are out of developmental sequence No systematic progression to increasingly complex tasks (e.g., steps are too small or too large, or nonexistent) No functional use of skills outside of teaching sessions (e.g., matching socks, arts & crafts)

42. Potential Causes of an Absent or Weak VP-MTS Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Conditional discrimination problems There is a failure to make conditional discriminations (two SDs and two behaviors) The sample stimulus does not evoke scanning behavior The sample stimulus does not establish SD/S-delta relations in the comparison array

43. Matching-to-Sample Nonverbal SD1 + Array (SD2) Nonverbal Response Sample Comparison SSDS Select Ball

44. Matching-to-Sample:A Conditional Discrimination R1scan Nonverbal SD1 (A ball) Sample Nonverbal array S S SD2/Sr1 Comparison R2 Select ball Sr2 S S

45. Potential Causes of an Absent or Weak VP-MTS Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Comparison array problems There is a failure to scan visual arrays and comparisons efficiently Over conditioning with a small array (limited array variation) The task is too easy because the items in thecomparison array are very different from each other Limited training with large arrays and scenes Limited training with similar stimuli in the array Limited training with arrays in the natural environment (3D) Limited training with the combination of large arrays and similar stimuli in scenes and in the natural environment

46. Identical Objects: Varied Array Size

47. Identical Pictures: Similar Stimuli

48. Identical Objects: Similar Stimuli-Varied Array Size

49. Potential Causes of an Absent or Weak VP-MTS Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Impaired VP-MTS established early The child is prompt bound by position, body movement, eye or pointing prompts, etc. Scrolling behavior gets reinforced There is a reinforcement history for position preference, or specific response patterns A verbal consequence like “No” becomes an SD to pick another item If reinforcement is not provided for first selection, the child quickly selects another item

50. Potential Causes of an Absent or Weak VP-MTS Repertoire and Intervention Strategies Generalization problems Generalization training is not provided Stimulus classes are not established Response classes are not established