Written by leading experts in language and cognition, this groundbreaking behavior analysis textbook brings the study of verbal behavior into the 21st century with cutting-edge research. Students and clinicians in the burgeoning field of applied behavior analysis will find the theoretical foundation they need to effectively help the increasingly diverse clients seeking their services. The origins of behavior analysis can be traced to the pioneering work of B.F. Skinner. Skinner’s fundamental insights into how human behavior is shaped, maintained, and can be changed were powerful and far-reaching. Some of Skinner’s most innovative contributions were in the study of language. Behavior analytic work in the area of language and cognition did not stop with Skinner, however. Indeed, Skinner’s work in this area has inspired considerable expansion, particularly with an eye toward more sophisticated verbal and cognitive repertoires. This important volume provides an overview of the concepts and core behavioral processes involved in language and cognition. You’ll find a deeper exploration of complex linguistic and cognitive skills, including generative responding, learning by observation, and perspective taking. Also included are clinically supported interventions based in mindfulness, psychological flexibility, and emotion regulation to help clients improve complex language, social, and academic skills. The future of behavior analysis is here. With its focus on the importance of language and cognition, this textbook is a must-read for anyone studying or practicing in the science of behavior.

Sixteen leading American and Japanese scholars in the field of behavior analysis present work on BA as it relates to language and cognition.

Copublished with Context Press Derived Relational Responding offers a series of revolutionary intervention programs for applied work in human language and cognition targeted at students with autism and other developmental disabilities. It presents a program drawn from derived stimulus relations that you can use to help students of all ages acquire foundational and advanced verbal, social, and cognitive skills. The first part of Derived Relational Responding provides step-by-step instructions for helping students learn relationally, acquire rudimentary verbal operants, and develop other basic language skills. In the second section of this book, you'll find ways to enhance students' receptive and expressive repertoires by developing their ability to read, spell, construct sentences, and use grammar. Finally, you'll find out how to teach students to apply the skills they've learned to higher order cognitive and social functions, including perspective-taking, empathy, mathematical reasoning, intelligence, and creativity. This applied behavior analytic training approach will help students make many substantial and lasting gains in language and cognition not possible with traditional interventions.

The Functions of Language and Cognition provides a forum for articulating a functional approach to language and cognition. This book discusses the influence of structural approaches to language and thought. Organized into 10 chapters, this book begins with an overview of a comprehensive alternative treatment of cognitive and linguistic functioning from a social, functional perspective. This text then discusses some considerations for a theory of skills and of cognitive development in general. Other chapters focus on acquisition of perceptual concepts rather than logical, verbal, or mathematical concepts. This book examines as well each of the possible limits in terms of their potential effects on cognitive development and in terms of the evidence regarding their actual effects. The final chapter deals with the influence of personal standards and strategies on therapy outcomes. This book is a valuable resource for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students in developmental psychology, clinical psychology, cognitive psychology, education, and rehabilitation.

This book provides comprehensive coverage of applied behavioral analysis (ABA). It examines the history and training methods of ABA as well as related ethical and legal issues. The book discusses various aspects of reinforcement, including social reinforcers, tangible reinforcers, automatic reinforcement, thinning reinforcers, and behavioral momentum. It addresses basic training strategies, such as prompts and fadings, stimulus fading, and stimulus pairing and provides insights into auditory/visual discrimination, instructional feedback, generalization, error correction procedures, and response interruption. In addition, the book addresses the use of ABA in education and explores compliance training, on-task behavior, teaching play and social skills, listening and academic skills, technology, remembering and cognitions, picture-based instruction, foreign language instruction, teaching verbal behavior, public speaking, and vocational skills. In addition, the book covers treatments for tics, trichotillomania, stereotypies, self-injurious behavior, aggression, and toe walking. It also addresses ABA for special populations, including individuals with autism, ADHD, substance abuse, and intellectual disabilities. Featured areas of coverage include: Basic assessment methods, such as observing behavior, treatment integrity, social validation, evaluating physical activity, measuring sleep disturbances, preference assessment, and establishing criteria for skill mastery. Functional assessment, including how to quantify outcomes and evaluate results, behaviors that precede and are linked to target behaviors, and treatments. Treatment methods, such as token economies, discrete trial instruction, protective equipment, group-based and parent training as well as staff training and self-control procedures. Health issues, including dental and self-care, life skills, mealtime and feeding, telehealth, smoking reduction and cessation, and safety training. Leisure and social skills, such as cellphone use, gambling, teaching music, sports and physical fitness. The Handbook of Applied Behavior Analysis is a must-have reference for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians, therapists, and other professionals in clinical child and school psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, social work, behavioral therapy and rehabilitation, special education, developmental psychology, pediatrics, nursing, and all interrelated disciplines.