Natural language training is a set of procedures used by behavior analysts that rely heavily on mand training in the natural environment. These procedures include incidental teaching, functional communication training, and

pivotal response treatment Pivotal response treatment (PRT), also referred to as pivotal response training, is a naturalistic form of applied behavior analysis used as an early intervention for children with autism that was pioneered by Robert and Lynn Koegel. PRT advocates c ...

, which are used to mirror the natural areas of language use for children.Hart, B. & Risely, T.R. (1980). "''In vivo'' language intervention: Unanticipated general effects." ''Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis'', 13, 407–432. Behavior analytic language training procedures run along a continuum from highly restrictive such as discrete trial training to very nonrestrictive conversationally-based strategies. Natural language falls in the middle of these procedures.

History

Natural language training, sometimes referred to as milieu (person's social environment.) language training emerged from generalization research by Donald Baer.Osnes, P. & Lieblein. (2003) "An Explicit Technology of Generalization." ''The Behavior Analyst Today'', 3 (4), 364–37
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/ref> The focus on these procedures was to use concepts closer to the natural environment to reduce prompt dependency and promote generalization. The initial procedure was the incidental teaching procedure. The natural language training approach is often contrasted with discrete trial approaches. In discrete trial program there is a clear trial window and only the first response is scored. If incorrect no reward is delivered and the trainer moves to the next trial. In the milieu language training program (natural language program), the trainer uses a least-to-most response strategy and waits for the correct response to be produced. Research exists showing that over 90% of the studies report good generalization for natural language training procedures.

Usage

Currently, these procedures are used to teach children with autism,

language delay A language delay is a language disorder in which a child fails to develop language abilities at the usual age-appropriate period in their developmental timetable. It particularly affects deaf children who are denied sign language. It is most co ...

s, and

developmental disabilities Developmental disability is a diverse group of chronic conditions, comprising mental or physical impairments that arise before adulthood. Developmental disabilities cause individuals living with them many difficulties in certain areas of life, espe ...

. Drawing on a behavior analytic model of child development (see

Behavior analysis of child development The behavioral analysis of child development originates from John B. Watson's behaviorism. History In 1948, Sidney Bijou took a position as associate professor of psychology at the University of Washington and served as director of the university ...

) the goal of these procedures is to remediate developmental deficits. Because of their focus on generalization, natural language programs are often recommended when discrete trial programs run into problems. These procedures are also recommended as part of building comprehensive programs for children with autism.

Techniques

Natural language training procedures use a least to most prompt strategy. This strategy starts with designing/engineering the environment to increase the chances for language to occur, followed by incidental teaching, time delay, mand training, and modeling the response. Each intervention is used in a successive fashion if the previous intervention does not produce results.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Natural Language Procedures Behaviorism