Relational Frame Theory: Implications for Education and Developmental Disabilities

This chapter provides an overview of the general learning prerequisite skills for derived relational responding. These include establishing preferences, on-task behavior, generalized imitation, attending to others, simple and complex discriminations and joint attention and social referencing. The chapter provides an overview of Skinner's verbal operants and explores how these speak to relational frame theory (RFT) account, particularly with regard to the distinction between nonverbal and verbal behavior. It summaries the different relational frames identified thus far and of some of the evidence supporting these concepts, as well as consideration of the optimal training sequence for establishing or facilitating the various frames. The chapter explores what appear to be among the most complex types of relational responding proposed by RFT, namely the perspective-taking relations and analogical reasoning, again summarizing evidence in support of each area.