Verbal behavior can be defined as the reinforced behavior of an individual through the mediation of the behavior of another person. The reinforcement of this kind of behavior is always indirect manipulation by the environment. Based on the above definition, it important noting that verbal behavior does not necessarily need to be spoken since the behavior like writing pointing and gesturing can also be developed through indirect manipulation by the environment. There are several techniques employed in developing the behavior and manners of children that have their basis in verbal behavior analysis. The techniques include assessment of verbal behavior using the independence of the verbal operant, verbal behavior assessment milestone plus placement program, and transfer of stimulus across the operant.
Verbal behavior assessment milestone, as well as placement program, is a comprehensive tool for children involving criterion-referenced assessment which is used to file learners’ existing repertoire. The technique is used to give a suggestion on the areas that require additional intervention as well as track progress of a given time (DeSouza, et al., 2017). Verbal behavior assessment milestone involves four different stages, the first stage contains a range of 170 learning of academic skills and verbal skills which are sequential and normed to the three stages of early childhood. Skinner on his work on verbal behavior assessment milestone technique also identifies the technique to be including barriers designed to identify the behaviors of learners which may interfere with learning, for example, lack of eye contact (Johnson et al., 2017). Furthermore, assessment of transition is also discussed and used in determining the time a learner may benefit from the therapeutical environment. The final stage involves an analysis of tasks and tracking of skills, an area that deals with key milestones aimed at developing about 900 skills. Some of the operant involved in the above technique includes mand, echoic, tacked, and intraverbal. Analysis of verbal behavior has been proven to be very effective over a long period of time in producing additional concept analysis apart from the applied empirical and basic investigation. Therefore, in my opinion, I don’t think that there is any field of learning that does not require the knowledge of verbal behavior analysis as explained by Skinner in his work.