The autistic child: Language development through behavior modification 0470150653, 9780470150658

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THE AUTI STIC CH I LO Language Development Through Behavior Modification

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10ss11

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LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION

By 0. Ivar Lovaas

IRVINGTON PU BL ISHERS, INC., NEW YOR K Distr ibuted by HALSTED PRESS, Division of JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. NEW YORK •

LONDON TORONTO SYDNEY

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To

111)

1l11fdn11

Randt. Lua. Karr. a11d Enk

Copyright© 1977 by IRVINGTON PUBLISHERS, INC. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatever, including information storage or retrieval, 1n whole or in part (except for brief quotations 1n critical articles or reviews), without written permission from the publisher. For information, write to Irvington Publishers, Inc .. 551 Filth Avenue. New 'lbrk, New 'lbrk 10017. 01stributed by HALSTED PRESS A d1v1s1on of JOHN WILEY & SONS, Inc • New York Library of Congress Cataloging in Pubhcat1on Data Lovaas. Ole Ivar. 1927 The autistic child B1bhography· p.

L Autism Language arts. RJ506 A9L68

2. Handicapped children I Title. 371.9'2

Education-

76·5890

ISBN 0·4 70-15065-3 Printed in The United States of America

Photos by Allan Grant

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CONTENTS

Page Foreword Acknowledgments Chapter I: BASIC PRINCIPLES Learning Theory and Language Ovcrvte"' of Languagur arrempr to reach language to muce and echolalic aur1st1c ch1l~ren We also. prese~r studies which have used procedu_res similar co ours hy 1nvesrigarors working wich ocher types of children'. such as cu.I rurally disaJvancageJ and retarded chilJren. The •.nrcnc heh1nd this book is highly praccical. We arc concerne.d v. 1Ch helping the reacher or parenc reach children ro commun1care more effectively. Being pragmatic clinicians and teachers lirst, we wanted rouse whatever procedures helped children learn ro ralk U~forrunarelr, nor enough is kno\"\'n about chc nervous system ar this time to manipulate it with the precision needed co produce language. Therefore, v.•hen one cries co help ch1l~ren learn ro c~I~. one. I\ f.1irl}' v.·ell resrricred co arcemprs co n1an~pularc- the child s environment , Furchermore, if one seeks ro '.11an1pulare rhe child\ t•nvironment to facilirace language )earn·~~· rhen one 1s larg.el}' rescr1cted co chose operations specified v. 1r?1n rno~ern learning cheorr. certainly tf one v.·anrs co base o~e s reaching efforts . on expcrimencallr val1dared procedures. \'\ Hh1n modern learning theory. ir ts chose operations which define operant ~o?dirioning or reinforcement theory rhar have been most expl1c1 rl y re la red ro cht acquisition of human behavior Ir ts prohabl}' rhe case, then, char we have no choice ac rh1s time bur ro \VOrk v.•irhin modern learning theory co cry co reach langu,1ge Once our proceJure~ and daca have been presented, v.•e relate our. studies to current rheorencal positions about language. To relate our lind111~s ro rhese cheorencal pos1uons, is almost unavoid•

Basic Principles

11

able since they are so central in the histor}' of psychology. For example, 1t has been considered by many that cerra1 n aspects of language such as grammar or S}'ntax are so complex char rhey could nor be acquired through experience, bur had ro come about because of certain innate neurological!>· based language abilities \vhich generate language with minimal environmental assiscance. From chis point of vie\v, our efforts co reach children language should fail . The dara v.·e present 1n chis book support some cheones of language more rhan ochers and may suggest certain direcuons for future research on language. We examine these rheoreucal considerations after v.·e present our merhod and dara Lee us nov.· introduce the basic framev.•ork v.·e used 1n teaching language. Learning Theory and Language

Since v.•e will drav.· heavily on learning rheory, introducing certain learning concepts at chis point will supply some order to our presentation. If \Ve approach rhe problem of language acquisition from a learning rheory framework, we see char a child who actiuires language must acquire rwo evenrs. First, he must acquire ccrra1n behaviors or reJpoNJeJ, a differenriarion of vocal ourpur. These voe.al or verbal responses correspond ro various levels of language analysis v.·irhin linguisrics. One of these levels includes phfl11e1111f behavior (consonants, vowels); another level concerns 1110,.phe1111£' behavior (v.•ords), another includes J)llla£'ti£'al or g,.11111111c111cal behavior (arrangement of v.·ords 1n sentences) When a child can produce only these verbal responses, his verbal ourpur exists w1rhour meaning-ir is nor yec a language. One can observe such behavior in rhe form of im1rauon. or a parroung of ,,·ords. Infants are said ro pass through such a stage_of 1m1taring rhe utterances of ochers. Some psychouc and bra1ndamagcd children come close ro rh1s in instances of ccholalic speech, as \vhen the child emirs ·· Ho'v are you!'' 1n response ro rhe adult's question. " Hov.· are you?" In order for his vocal ourpur ro acquire meaning, rhe second evenr, his verbal behavior must occur ,,·irhin a certain stimulus concexr. Certain aspects of rhe child's environment musr acquire certain somulus functions v. h1ch serve to regulate rhe occurrence of his verbal behavior To acco1nphsh chis, a chilJ musr learn, lirst, what stimulus cond1rions, be rhey external or internal, give rise to verbal utterances and, second, what stimulus functions che utterance itself should

12

Basic Principles

poss ess-c har is, what furth er verbal or nonverbal behavior, in hims elf or other s, may be elicited by that utter ance . In lingu istics the term sr111,111tics mosc closely resembles our use of che cerm 1ti11111/111 ft1111"t10111. This defin ition of langu age. of ident ifyin g che sumu lus and response prop eroes of langu age, 1s most closely assoc1 versu> extra-sllmulus prompting procedure' on d1scrim1nat1on learning with J.ull>UC children.)•'11Y11al 11,1.pplud Br· ha1·1or,,/ An,d)lll. 197~. in press '>egal, I. f lndutr1on .1nd the provcnantc of operants. In R. l.\.1 Gilberc & J R ~ilknson ,11 ,,,,. Ne" York Macmillan, 1953 Skinner, B I• I 'tr/1,i/ /,,h,11 w•'. New Yorio. Appleton- (.encury -Crofcs, L95 7 Tcrratc. H S Sr11nulu' 0 0

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... ... 0'"0:::> )'. Ricky Who 1s chis, Rick)·' Rick) Bcccy E Thar"s good, and wh.1r is Beccy doing' Ruk) Beery is blowing

A lacer recording (six months into training) shows us working within another context (training "expanded" E No. Jok inc what I a>kcJ )OU Rick>' Say, whdt s rour ndme 1 Rl{tJ Rick)' · E 1'-:o. 5.11, what-. .. • Rn/.> \Vha1 \ 81, ·'.1 I don· t knov. . E You asked me. 811/) I asked ) ou E Good, B1llr.

FoJlo,ving this convcrsanon, Billy was trained co ask questions of a third person as \\'ell as of rhe chcrapisc. The following conversation ensued: E

What are you going co do at school tomorrow! 811/y I don't know. What' F. I don't know either, Bill)" How can )'OU find our? Btlfy I can ~sk t.1omm1c. E She doesn't know either How can you find our> ,~· was prompced ro say he could ask /\1 rs l , his teacher>. Btfl) 0 K E How c~n you find out what you arc i-01ng to do at school? Bt!fy I can ask /\1r~ U E Good, Billy.

The last conversacion v.·e have from Billy

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recorded:

E. \X'har h.ippc:ncd .11 sd1ool today , Bill)'? Btfl) /\1art)' H . goc in tht)·Annc (t.lr B is che bus dn"er) . E. \\' here did ~he chJngC' to; Bill) To thC' front window . E \Vh. £ No, she R1Ck) She 1s putung around his shoulders £ Around her shoulders. Rule) Her shoulders L Good, Ricky Ver> good Wh.u 1s Susan doing! Ruk) He 1s putc1ng hands 1n rhe pocket £ No, she R1CkJ She as putcing hands 10 rhe pocket. E That's ver> good. Her hands. Ruky Her hands 1n the pocket. £ Th.it's right. What's happen ing out here?

Most of the teaching of grammar was conducted informally without obieccive daca recording. However, we also developed cv.·o specific programs for the teaching of grammar \\'hich dealt with the addition of 1nfiect1onal affixes. These are simple lexical items, nor complex S}'ntactical rules . "S" for the plural and '"ed" for the past tense are inflectional affixes. T hey do nor change the grammatical class of che \\'Ords (as is often the case v.·ich deri vational affixes such as "l»") and, in general, the formation of "·ords through the addition of infiecuonal morphemes is quite regular as compared to other kinds of affixes. Rules governing tht: addition of affixes arc the simplesc kinds of grammatical rules, and infieccional affixes are the simplest kinds of affixes. These may be some of the reasons we "·ere able ro develop a simple, successful, formal training program for teaching their use. The acquisition of inflectional affixes allo\\'S rhe child to form some very common kinds of utterances about time and number. Jo parttcular, it seems that the transformation of verbs from present to past tense accounts for a large percentage of the descriprions people commonly 1nake. This skill enables one to call upon one's past experience and that of ochers, to learn how the past •

Making Language Social and Spontaneous

81

relates to the present and, one hopes, to be in a position to ev;iluatc che consequences of an ace wichouc performing ic. There are t\VO scages to che program we have developed for teaching che cransformauon of verbs from present co past tense. We ,vorked as follO\\'S. Using three Ss, Billy, Scocc, and Leslie (5 to 8 years old, echolaltc), \\'e selected l 0 common nonverbal behaviors (such as \valk1ng, dancing, closing, looking) \\•hich we already had caught S co label 1n che present tense ("! am walking across chc room ""I am dancing." "I am closing the door ""I am looking outside.") The verbs describing these behaviors all required "cd" 1n che past cense. We then gave che children a performance precesc co assess whether chey could use their verbs 1n che past tense. In chis rest, S was first cold co perform che behavior and asked co label 1t 1n che present ("What are you doing)"). He \vas then cold co scop and co label the be~avior 1n the past ccnse ("What did you jusc do?"). None of the child~en ~ould label their behaviors in the past tense, as can be seen 1n Figure 1 l. Ss "'ere chen trained co transform chc 10 sentences involved in che pretest co che past cense, buc \vichouc che associated nonver~al performance. E merely asked S co repeat che present censc (£said: "Say, I am walking across che room."), chen asked for che pasc cense by saying: "What did you jusc do?" and pr~mpced ch~ correct past tense. If \Ve examine Billy's record on chis task, which is labeled "verbal training" in Figure 11, \\'e can see chat he learned co crircrion "'irhin the first block of 10 trials. Actually he erred and \vas prompted the correct transformation on the sentences numbered L, 3, -1, and 7 on che first block of I 0 trials, he made no mistakes "·hen these sentences \\'ere repeated in the second IO-trial block. \V/e then administered a performance post-te~c, identical to the performance pretest, in an attempt to determine \\'hether the purely verbal cra1n1ng on transforming sentences had helped him to label his nonverbal behavior 1n c~e past tense. The children nO\\' performed considerably better. Billy, for example, raised his score from zero to SO percent correct. He made m 1stakes in labeling the first behavior ("I an:1 walking across rhe room') "·hich E. corrected. He also made mistakes on numbers 3, 4, 7, a~d 8. The children \Vere then trained s~c1fically in correctly labeling behaviors 1n rhe past tense, w.h1ch we tra.1ned as follows They \vere cold co perform the behavior, and w~1le they \Vere engaged 1n the behavior they were asked to label tt in the present tense. This they already had mastered. They were then

Making Language Social and Spontaneous

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cold co stop and asked (trained) co label the behavior 1n the past tense They acquired this task of labeling lO behaviors using the past tense \vith1n 20 trials, as can be seen in the per/1Jnna11a tra1n1ng 1n Figure 11 Finally they were given a generalization test in \\'hich \\'C selected 10 common bur neu· behaviors (such as clapping hands, scratching head, poincing, couching). They could label chese behaviors 1n che present cense, bur chey had nor been trained co label chem 1n che pasc rense. As the figure shO\\'S, their pcrformance .,.,·as errorlcss on the generalization cesc. The children made somt· minor (and understandable) errors, but these did nor discracc from the adequacy of their performance. For example, Billy transformed "touch" to "couched" ("I couched the .,,·1ndo\\' and transformed "push" to "pushed" ("! pushed the car"). In summary, the data show char the children learned co transform simple verbs from the present to the past tense During the general ization test, they both responded to ne9.' st1 mull, and they a lso constructed new responses (grammatically correct sentences). Within our conceptual frame\\•ork, one can state that verb transfor1nation is a response created through differential reinforcc1nent. Jn other terms, one might say that they had learned a grammatical "rule" by ..vhich they generated novel sentences. The use of irregular verbs (run-ran, ear-ate) "'as caught as exceptions to the "ed" ending in che child's day-co-day act1vir1es. The acquisition seemed uneventful. The program for pluralizarion also considered regular and irregular forms [ selected 10 common object labels \\·hich rcqu1rcd the addition of s" 1n the plural. He held up che appropriate number of ob1ects and said, for example, "Here 1s one apple, here are t\VO. . . The desired response 'lvas prompted, and so on. After 5 mastered the first 10 plurals, E trained plurahLat1on co several more quesnons (S 0 s) (e.g., "Here are some . . . " "Here ") E. then rested for generalization using both new are manr ob1ects and ne'v s0 s. T hey learned co pluralize as they learned the verb cransformauons. Irregular plurals were taught in the same manner as irregular verbs, i.e., as they \Vere encountered 1n the child's -a: 0

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Program 8: Spontaneity

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sence of independent measures of a child's mocivation, these are clinical impressions only. We shall return co a discussion of such morrvattonal variables lacer.

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1 seem co some. \\C acruall> built a program co help rhe child become more spontaneous We began such sponcane1cy cra1n1ng by holding up a "poster on \Vh1ch was pasted a picture of one obiecc chat che child could label. E asked, "What do you see?" and prompted che ans\ver. The number of pictures on rhe poster were chen increased 1n gradual steps, to t\VO or three co a dozen or so; and reinforcement \Vas given conringcnr on larger and larger responses. The child \vas said co have mastered a poster v.•hen he had labeled all the components of rhe poster without requests (prornpcs anti the like) ro do so. After the chi ld had been reinforced for such "extended" responses using che kind of conrrolled scimulus presentations a llo"·ed by rhe posrers, we moved on ro material and quesrions like "What Jo you see on che table?" and '"What do you see in chis room"! and "Tell me about yourself." Jn "'Tell me about yourself," E scarred S labeling his body pares and cloches. If an unusual response occurred, 1r ''as 1m mcJiatcl}" and generously rewarded, \vhercver 1c occurred in the chain. Lee's look ar some dara. Figure 13 shov.·s rhc chaining of an increasing number of bod> pares (on the ordinate), over training days (about half an hour of rra1n1ng per day) for three childrenScorr, Leslie, and Danny. By che 12rh day. Leslie v.·ould. '"'irhour addrcional cues from E produce: ··eyes, nose, hair. shirr, arm," and so on, pointing co each pare as she labeled ic Alrhough ,,.e trained 0'" or "sens1b1lit}" 1n mind. Ir seemed rh.1r \Ve should build extended verbal reperro1rcs ro supply a range of re1nforcers for fantasy behavior. This presupposes ch.tr rhe child 1s reinforced by controlling large aspects of his person.ti env1ronmenr, be}'Ond rhe necessary operarions for eaClng and slcepin,g Many aucisric chi ldren do nor find rheir en-

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Making Language Social and Spontaneous

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r (2nd yt11r): ~ \f(1ng " h1" and 1nreratring w1ch rherap1sts Complex- l:s1ni: phr."e' hke "k1" 1c and m.i.ke n heccer. " R1 rnakc: fine Jescrimin;111ons .1bout his env1-

i':ovc:mbc:r 19 Median 8111 rs using "I want"' plus one word to desii:natc: reinforcements ocher than food : "I want push" and " I w.1nc swing Complex He uses "Go away" when he wanes to h,1ve someone le.1vt· him alone He greets hos peers w1ch "Hi "

..

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December 22 I le is requesnng reinforcement 10 man)' W usin.11 >Ome fairl>• compkx sentences with \C\Tral pronouns: "I "ant >OO 10 ricklc me.· "I want co tie my ;hues."

!>lay: 55 .\ted1an

Billy is usin!( mort' complex sentences for more requescs, l'.g , " I wanr you to ch.&Se me." He is consistently 1ndud· 1ng n.1mes 1ngrec1ings Ht, Ricky," ··Goodbye, Daddy ." Complex Billy 1s using " Yes" and "No" sponraneously both to answer questtons and to express desires or respond co comm.1nJs G1v1ng some commands co therapists, using prepos1rions such as "come over" and "sa down."

June. 6~

Billy 1• 11< 1 n~ complex sentences composed of pronouns, aruclcs, and prcpos111on" • Sc:prcmh«r .. ., ~1cdiJn

Same level JS August. Complex Quite concerned about going home Asks for l\1on1m>· .ind 0Jdd>·, labels people in magazines .u l\fomm>· and 0Jddr. starts Jsking for brother, "Par." He 1s .ibk 10 folio" 1nscru,t1ons of a srranger. a 1ani1or. and help him ell"Jn >Omc windows. He 1s using "no" to express denied request> ·;-..;o monc> , no coke, no cand>·."

Reinforcement and the Maintenance of the Language Behavior

We felc chac one of che mosc imporcanc variables in che scu· most closely associated \\'ith Chomsk) ( 1965) and Lenneherg ( 19('>-i). The en\1ronmenralisc position has been mo~t closely associated \\'ith Skinner ( 1957) and ~1owrer ( 1960). and co some extent with Berko ( 1958), Brown and Fraser ( 196·1 ), and Ervin ( 1964 ). We hope our •

Implications and Speculations

111

findings \\'ill lend 1nore credence to some of those conceptions rather than ochers. The reader 'viii remember chac we presented considerable daca to sho\\ thac, by certain reinforcement operauons, our children came co understand and correccly express novel and grammacically correct sencences. How can we conceptualize such flexibilicy within learning cheory? We find che concept of response class direccly useful, as che response class concept allows for che expression of behavior 'vhich has noc been specifically reinforced in che past, provided other responses within che same class have been reinforced. Although most critiques of learning approaches co language appear nor co be full> cognizant of it, che notion of response classes 1s noc new. Skinner ( 195 3) defined a response (an operant) not 1n terms of ICS topography. bur as a generalized or functional tiass of responses which one can 1dent1fy by showing ho"'', when one changes rhe screngrh of one response. one is simultaneously altering che scrength of several ocher responses wichouc dircccly intervening on them. A very "simple" illuscracion of this concept c:an be found in shaping che barpress of a rat. If a rat has been reinforced for pressing che bar with its left foot, then (under certain circumstances) ic is now more probable char in che future che rat \viii press the bar with his right foot or his head and "express" a similar '"ide range of new appropriate behaviors which had nor heen specifically reinforced on the bar All these different responses. \\'hose expression has been altered because of che change in che strength of one response. are said co constituce a response class. To 1lluscrace chc notion of response classes from language development, suppose one reinforced an infant for emitting the phoneme "ah." One may observe an increase 1n che emission of range of ocher phonemes as well as facial expressions (mouth and eye movements), even though chese additional responses have noc beeo direccly reinforced We \\•ould say chat we had isolated a response class The interesting part of chis concept (of response classes) is chat they cannot be know ,, pr1or1: what does or does not conscicuce a class is an c1np1rical question. One knows chat one has isolared a class ''hen the members of chat · 1965 , i. 1 l.~-124 . Zeaman, D, & House, B. J. The role of acrenrion in recardace discrim1nacion learning. In ~ - R. Elli~ (Ed .), Hand/}(J(JJ. of 11un1al dtfiaenq Kew )ork l\.1cGraw-Htll, 1963 .

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Chapter VI

LANGUAGE TRAINING MANUALS

he: follo\v1ng manuals \Vere prepared \\·irh rhe help of f\1er,.d1rh Gibbs and JudJCh Srevens-Long . The manuals are illusrrilCIVC of tht \\ii) \\'C caughr che language behavior~ \\'e have revie\\·ed in chis book The> should be vie\\·ed as preliminarr Jr,1trs only, in need of rev1s1on Specifically, che manuals do noc incorporace suggescions from recenr findings on transfer" Hh1n \'ersus rransfer ;1cross stimulus dimensions 1n prompcing S1milarlr. man)· recent findings 1n d1scnm1nanon learning, such as prerrain1ng ~ to ,,·1chhold re:;ponding 1n rhe presence ofS-. ha\·e noc b