The role of social and material reinforcers in increasing talking of a disadvantaged preschool child.
Make preferred toys contingent on talking and low-verbal preschoolers start speaking fast.
01Research in Context
What this study did
One quiet preschooler got no talking time. Teachers gave him toys only after he spoke or answered questions.
The study used an ABAB design. Talking earned toys, then toys stopped, then talking earned toys again.
What they found
The boy's words jumped from almost zero to 30 per session when toys were on the line.
When the toy rule ended, talking dropped back. When it returned, talking soared again.
How this fits with other research
James et al. (1981) later used a voice-light box to shape louder speech in similar preschoolers. Both studies show quick gains in expressive skills.
Lancioni et al. (2009) used the same ABAB logic with mouth-wiping for two teens. Contingent access to music or vibration controlled the response, just like toys controlled talking here.
Hilton et al. (2010) gave parents a book instead of toys. Book reading produced only small behavior drops, while toy access here produced large talking gains. The difference is reinforcer power: tangible beats words on a page.
Why it matters
If a child rarely talks, pair your questions with a bin of favorite toys. Hand over a car or block only after any vocal attempt. Watch the word count climb in one session.
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Place three favorite toys in sight. Give one only after the child says any word or answers your question.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Adult social reinforcement and access to materials in the preschool were made contingent on the verbalizations of a 4-yr-old Negro girl with an extremely low frequency of talking. Though the teachers' social attention was always given immediately for all spontaneous speech, if the child's spontaneous verbalizations were requests for materials, those materials were withheld until she had responded to the teachers' questions about those materials. When she was silent, the teachers withheld their attention and the materials. A high frequency of verbal behavior was quickly established. When both teacher attention and materials were provided only when the child was not verbalizing, the child's frequency of talking immediately decreased. When social attention and materials were again made contingent upon spontaneous speech and answering questions, the child's frequency of talking quickly increased to its previous high level. The content of the child's verbal behavior which increased was primarily a repetition of requests to the teachers with little change noted in the non-request verbalizations, or verbalizations to other children. A further experimental analysis demonstrated that social interaction per se was not the reinforcer which maintained the increased verbalization; rather, for this child, the material reinforcers which accompanied the social interaction appeared to be the effective components of teacher attention.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1968 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1968.1-253