Philosopher Analysis Stankevicius

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B.F. Skinner 1 How did Skinner’s philosophy about behavior and education help students with disabilities? Elizabeth Stankevicius School of Education, Liberty University Author Note Elizabeth Stankevicius I have no known conflict of interest to disclose. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Elizabeth Stankevicius Email: estankevicius@liberty.edu

B.F. Skinner 2 Abstract Students with disabilities often have deficits in various domains, such as social, language, and academics. Specifically, deficits in language can often lead to complications with an individual’s academics, communication skills, and social skills. Individuals with disabilities, specifically those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), tend to have difficulties with language. B.F. Skinner’s language theory of verbal behavior has been the basis for various language interventions. Skinner’s theory of verbal behavior emphasizes the differences between the behavior of the listener and that of the speaker. There have been interventions based on the verbal behavior that have been used for individuals with disabilities and research and literature show the increases in language acquisition that these learners have made. Verbal behavior is broken up into different verbal operants. Each operant looks at each component of language in a functional way. The basic verbal operants are tact, mand, echoic, and intraverbal. Keywords: verbal operant, mand, tact, echoic, intraverbal.

B.F. Skinner 3 How did Skinner’s philosophy about behavior and education help students with disabilities? B.F. Skinner wrote various works that continue to have a great impact today in the realm of special education and applied behavior analysis (ABA). Two of his works Verbal Behavior (1957) and The Technology of Teaching (1968) are the focus of this paper. The research and literature that discuss the theories and show how the implementation affect students with disabilities is great. Skinner had written extensively on how his theories and ideas could be applied in the educational setting. Background and Cultural Context B.F. Skinner studied psychology and was greatly influenced in his studies by Ivan Pavlov, Bertrand Russell, and John B. Watson. His interest in behaviorism led him to do research and experiments with animal behavior. B.F. Skinner is widely known for his invention the Skinner box which showed how reinforcement directly affected the behavior of the pigeons. “Although the American psychologist, Edward Thorndike, had stated the law of effect in 1898 as a result of his experiments with animals in puzzle boxes, it was Skinner who discovered that rate of responding as a dependent variable was sensitive to a variety of experimental manipulations. As a result, Skinner discovered how the law of effect–now called the law of reinforcement– worked and under what circumstances. He then discovered other laws of operant learning, including extinction, punishment, discrimination, and generalization” (Schlinger, 2020 p.1089). Skinner published various works such as Verbal Behavior (1957), The Analysis of Behavior (1961), and The Technology of Teaching (1968).

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B.F. Skinner 4 Philosophy of Education Skinner had written extensively on how his theories and ideas could be applied in the educational setting. He had believed that there was a large presence of aversive control in education. Students were not doing their schoolwork because they wanted to but rather they would do it so they would not receive some sort of punishment, such as a loss of privileges. Skinner also felt that reinforcement occurred too infrequently and when it did, it was not the appropriate time. “Skinner believed that teaching required properly arranging reinforcement contingencies. Instruction is more effective when (1) teachers present the material in small steps, (2) learners actively respond rather than passively listen, (3) teachers give feedback immediately following learner’s responses, and (4) learners move through the material at their own pace” (Schunk, 1991, p.109). Skinner stated the process of instruction involves shaping. Shaping is where you establish operant behavior successive approximations towards the desired response. Schunk (1991) described it as the goal of the instruction is the desired behavior, the initial behaviors of the student are identified. Then the substeps (behaviors) that lead to the desired behavior are formulated and each of those represent a small modification of the proceeding behavior. Various approaches are used for each student, which may include small group, modeling, and individual seatwork. This along with immediate feedback and active student responding is how Skinner thought the best way for students to be taught.

B.F. Skinner 5 Theory to Practice Skinner’s book The Technology of Teaching (1968) discusses his thoughts on how teaching should be done as well as explanations about his teaching machine. Sulzer-Azaroff (2004) took a look at Skinner’s teaching machine and how it influenced many in their design of instruction. The teaching machine process features are looked at and listed out. These include, the instructional stimuli is for recall and not just for recognition, small steps are taken by the students, the program involves active student responding which is to make sure the student understand the material before proceeding to the next topic, it will present material for which the student is ready for, the machine is programmed to ensure student success in way of getting the correct answer by using various techniques for fading and shaping prompts, and it reinforces the correct response by giving immediate feedback. There are programs that are used in school districts that follow closely to this design (e.g. I-Ready) to assist students in academic success. Many curriculums and/or teacher styles of instruction follow this way or might deviate slightly from it when instructing students. B.F. Skinner published the book Verbal Behavior, in 1957. “In this work, Skinner (1957/1992) defined verbal behavior as operant behavior reinforced through the mediation of a listener who had acquired specific practices of a verbal community” (Conceição et al., 2019). One of the differences between the traditional language theory and Skinner’s verbal behavior is the emphasis on the differences between the behavior of the listener and the behavior of the speaker. “Traditionally, linguists define language in terms of the structure and derived meaning of words. However, Skinner ascribed to the theory that language, or what he termed verbal behavior, is acquired similarly to other operant behavior (i.e., behavior is acquired, and maintained when it produces reinforcing consequence)” (Carnett et al., 2019 p.131). What some

B.F. Skinner 6 refer to as the elementary verbal operants are mand, tact, echoics, and intraverbals. Mands, which are requests, are typically the first to be worked on with an individual if they show not to have the ability to request for something without exhibiting aberrant behaviors. When motivation is high to get something, the individual is more prone to request the item. Tacting which is also referred to as labeling is usually taught when an individual has a few mands in their repertoire. . The individual can interact with the environment by identifying what is in it which is different than asking for that item because they want it. Echoics is where the individual repeats sounds or words that they hear in their environment. Intraverbal is a higher skill as it is when the individual is responding to someone else’s verbal behavior Perspectives on Diversity “ The effectiveness of ABA therapy for the population with ASD has been demonstrated in numerous experimental and randomized controlled trials and has shown beneficial effects for cognitive, language and social skills” (Vietze & Lax, 2020 p. 1234). Dixon et al., (2015) state that the area where ABA has demonstrated effectiveness is in the realm of verbal behavior therapy. Verbal behavior therapy aims to promote the acquisition of language skills in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Delfs et al. (2014) state that early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) teaches language skills according to Skinner’s analysis of the maintaining contingencies as well as the implications that verbal operants are functionally independent of one another. The two most used assessments to measure verbal behavior and to develop interventions are the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills— Revised (ABLLS-R); (Partington, 2010) and the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP); (Sundberg, 2008). In Skinner’s various works, he looked at the individual

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B.F. Skinner 7 person and not groups of people as a whole. It was with this thinking that his theories are being implemented to help individuals become more independent and live better lives. Critical Analysis As much as there is of positive criticism of Skinner’s works and theories, there are negative ones out there as well. “Chomsky critiqued Skinner’s functional analysis in a book review that many found puzzling due to several lengthy criticisms put forth by Chomsky that did not relate to principles or concepts contained in Verbal Behavior. Specifically, Chomsky criticized Skinner for proposing imitation and conscientious parental tutoring as the major explanations for language development” (McLaughlin, 2010, p. 115). McLaughlin (2010) discussed some of the criticisms that were given again Skinner but was able to show how they were incorrect mostly due to the fact that they were not part of Skinner’s theory to begin with. There are multiple articles that will address critiques about Skinner’s work but each of the papers would discuss why they were just misrepresentations or misunderstandings and why. I have first-hand experience in implementing some of Skinner’s theories and have seen how they have a positive effect on individuals with disabilities. I have also seen where there was improper implementation done and then individuals stating it does not work. The field of ABA is data driven and there is a lot of research that defends the positive of Skinner’s theories. As in any field, more research is always needed to continue to show the effectiveness of something as well as to look at it with different variables. Implications and Conclusions There is much proof in the research that many of Skinner’s work and theories, including that of verbal behavior helps individuals with autism and other disabilities in acquiring language skills. These interventions are mostly done in an ABA therapy setting, although with the proper

B.F. Skinner 8 training and support, it can be implemented in the home as well as the school setting. Literature shows that individuals with disabilities who have deficits in language skills are more prone to exhibit harmful and aberrant behaviors. Verbal behavior is used to assist these individuals in acquiring more language skills to reduce or eliminate these types of behaviors helping them to be safe and more independent. As in any field, more research is needed to see the continued usefulness and look at the longevity of skills acquired by individuals.

B.F. Skinner 9 References Conceição, D. B., Greer, R. D., & Moschella, J. L. (2022). A General Outline of the Verbal Behavior Developmental Theory. Brazilian Journal of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy, 24(1), 1–39. https://doi.org/10.31505/rbtcc.v24i1.1646 Carnett, Raulston, T. J., & Charpentier, J. (2019). The application of skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior for teaching communication skills to Persons with Developmental Disabilities. Current Developmental Disorders Reports., 6(3), 131–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40474-019-00170-0 McLaughlin, S. F. (2010). Verbal behavior by B.F. Skinner: Contributions to analyzing early language learning. The Journal of Speech and Language Pathology, Applied Behavior Analysis., 5(2), 114–131. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0100272 Schunk, D. H. (1991). Learning theories: An educational perspective. Macmillan Publishing Co, Inc. Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. Appleton-Century-Crofts. https://doi.org/10.1037/11256- 000 Skinner, B.F. (1968). The technology of teaching. Appleton-Century-Crofts. Sulzer-Azaroff, B. (2004). The shaping of behaviorists: B.F. skinner's influential paper on teaching machines. European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 5(2), 129-135. https://doi.org/10.1080/15021149.2004.11434239 Szabo, T. G. (2020). Equity and diversity in behavior analysis: Lessons from skinner (1945). Behavior Analysis in Practice, 13(2), 375-386. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-020- 00414-1 Vietze, P., & Lax, L. E. (2020). Early intervention ABA for toddlers with ASD: Effect of

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B.F. Skinner 10 age and amount. Current Psychology, 39(4).

Philosopher Analysis Stankevicius

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