A Functional Contextualist Approach to Early Language Training: Using Relational Frame Theory to Promote Linguistic Generativity

Relational Frame Theory (RFT) sees generalized derived relational responding—relational framing—as the core skill involved in human language, essential for flexible, fluent conversational skills and academic progress. Relational responding repertoires have been highly correlated with language and IQ measures, relational training programs have shown powerful effects on both academic skills and IQ, and a key domain for the application of RFT has recently been in teaching children with language and academic deficits. In this highly interactive workshop, we identify relational responding repertoires as behavioral cusps to teach towards an ultimate aim of establishing generative language, and present a powerful framework for approaching early intervention, based on RFT and informed by decades of research and practice.

Our approach synthesizes RFT theory and applied research on the assessment and training of derived relational responding skills with strategies developed by programs which follow a more traditional behavior analytic and specifically Skinnerian analysis of verbal behavior, including an emphasis on analyzing motivational variables, training mands, and conducting training in the natural environment. In this workshop we focus on teaching key aspects of both approaches, and will discuss how RFT and a functional contextualist philosophy inform our work with children with autism and other developmental delays, as well as with their families and their support teams. However, we also invite participation from researchers or practitioners working with early language development in other populations.

We assume that participants have a common interest in assessing language as behavior within an environmental context, and using all the tools at hand to influence that behavior. We intend for this workshop to give participants more tools to do that with, whatever their current approach might be. Decades of research have established the effectiveness of applied behavior analysis (ABA) as an intervention for children with autism and other developmental delays, and for participants who are using a more traditional behavior analytic or Skinnerian verbal behavior approach, we explicitly do not propose a wholesale replacement of current behavior analytic programs. Rather we invite participants to review their approach to assessment and programming with a new focus, and we will introduce new ways of conceptualizing language skills that will enhance existing practices, particularly with respect to issues of rote vs flexible, generative responding. For participants who are using curricula based on an RFT approach already, we invite a deeper exploration of the underlying theory, and introduce a framework for problem-solving when lesson plans are not producing desired outcomes.

Participants can expect to learn the essentials of RFT, along with effective, evidence-based practical strategies for promoting generalized and generative language repertoires. We will provide a comprehensive workbook of teaching protocols and data sheets, and will coach participants in the implementation of both assessment and training plans. We will review the empirical basis for the programmatic suggestions in this workshop, but we also sincerely invite participants, as scientist-practitioners, to be a part of enlarging the evidence base for these programs, and will devote some time within the workshop to discuss potential avenues for further research.

The primary focus of this workshop is on intervention with children from the preschool through the early elementary stage (i.e., ages 2 – 8), although the principles will apply for older children with language delays as well.

About Siri Ming, Ph.D., BCBA-D.: 

Dr. Ming is a practicing behavior analyst with over 20 years experience in the field, working with individuals with developmental disabilities and autism and their families in a variety of capacities from direct interventionist to county level quality assurance. Her research and practice focus is on the synthesis of Skinnerian Verbal Behavior and Relational Frame Theory, using a functional contextualist approach, and she has authored numerous peer-reviewed research and theoretical articles on applications of RFT. She has provided training and consultation for agencies and individual consultants using an analysis of verbal behavior approach to programs for children with autism since 1996, and has conducted workshops on applications of RFT for nearly a decade. Her clients include consultants and agencies from throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Nigeria, and India. 

About Ian Stewart, Ph.D.:

Dr. Stewart is a fellow of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, and is the author of four books on RFT and ACT, over a dozen book chapters, and nearly 100 peer-reviewed research and theoretical articles. He has been teaching and conducting research at the National University of Ireland, Galway since 2002, where his research focuses on the analysis of language and cognition from a contextual behavioral and more specifically Relational Frame Theory perspective. He has been providing workshops on RFT in the context of early intervention programs for children with autism for over a decade.

About John McElwee, M.S., BCBA:

John McElwee is a practicing behavior analyst who has provided consultative services to school districts and behavioral health agencies for over 40 years on the application of ABA for students and clients with Autism Spectrum Disorder. He received his Master of Science degree from the University of Calgary in 1972, where his studies emphasized Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). John passed his Boards in Behavior Analysis in 1999 and was given charter member status. He has been a contributing member of Ian Stewart’s Relational Frame Theory (RFT) lab for over 15 years, has numerous publications, and has given workshops on the implementation of RFT concepts in early intervention programs for children with autism for over a decade.

About Diana Ferroni-Bast, Ph.D.:

Dr. Diana Ferroni-Bast has been a qualified behavior analyst and clinical psychologist since 2005. She received a Ph.D. from the National University of Ireland (NUI) Maynooth in 2015 under the supervision of Prof. Dermot Barnes-Holmes for research using the IRAP. After gaining her Ph.D. she started postdoctoral research at the Autism Institute at Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil (UFSCAR) funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). She is now collaborating with Dr. Stewart as a visiting postdoctoral researcher at NUI Galway. Her work includes assessment and training of hierarchical relational framing, investigating processes related to Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) using an RFT approach and translational research.