By:  Michael Toto, M.S. Ed., BCBA, LBA-CT

At any given moment we are faced with a choice as to how we will communicate with others.  Should we be appropriate and polite?  Somewhat appropriate?  Not appropriate at all?  Many of us are capable of communicating in various complex ways, which is a very fortunate skill to have acquired.  However, some individuals do not have the luxury of tapping into a wide variety of communicative responses.  They might only know, and use very few forms of communication in order to achieve a certain outcome (Carr & Durand, 1985).  For instance, one child might request more ice cream by saying, “Could I have more ice cream, please?” while another child achieves the same outcome by screaming, “I WANT MY ICE CREAM!”  Depending on how the environment responds to them, both children could end up with that extra scoop of vanilla.

When we consider how to build more positive communicative responses with young and complex learners, it is incredibly important to pay attention to the number of opportunities they have and the tactics we use to teach them (Durand, 1999).  The amount of opportunities a child has to communicate more appropriately could be increased by contriving opportunities instead of waiting for opportunities to naturally occur.  For example, you may accelerate a child’s learning of appropriately asking for more ice cream by giving them a very small amount of ice cream at ten different times throughout the day (instead of relying on teaching this skill just once when it naturally occurs after dinner during dessert).  

With ample opportunities in place, the adult can now place a stronger emphasis on how the learner is taught the targeted skill.  To teach more positive communicative responses, researchers have found success – and distinct advantages to – utilizing two different teaching procedures:  least-to-most and most-to-least (Wacker et al., 2005).  

• A least-to-most teaching procedure might involve presenting the child with a small amount of ice cream, allowing the child to finish it, and then waiting five seconds before saying to the child, “You could say…Could I have more ice cream, please?”  

• A most-to-least teaching procedure would involve immediately prompting the child to say, “Could I have more ice cream, please?” instead of waiting five seconds after they have finished the small amount of ice cream.  

Your goal may very well not be to teach your child how to appropriately request more ice cream, but providing children with the appropriate language they need to access what they want is an effective step toward reducing and replacing their challenging behavior.  Practically all communicative responses have the potential of being molded into appropriate, sophisticated patterns of language.  When an individual learns how to communicate more effectively with their verbal community, it places them in a position to learn more difficult lifelong skills such as waiting, accepting “no,” and tolerating troublesome events.   

Sources:

Carr, E. G., & Durand, V. (1985). Reducing behavior problems through functional communication training. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 18, 111-126. 

Durand,V. (1999).Functional communication training using assistive devices: Recruiting natural communities of reinforcement. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 32, 247-267. 

Wacker, D. P., Berg, W. K., Harding, J. W., Barretto, A., Rankin, B., & Ganzer, J. (2005). Treatment effectiveness, stimulus generalization, and acceptability to parents of functional communication training. Educational Psychology, 25, 233-256. 

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