The Verbal Behavior Approach: How to Teach Children with Autism and Related Disorders

This book was one of many that I have read since I suspected my son had ASD, and actually we followed a very similar path to Mary. My son was non verbal, officially diagnosed with moderate to severe ASD at almost 3 years old. Being from a medical background as well, and suspecting that he had ASD despite physicians saying otherwise, I did however start our own research and home teaching at 9 months/a year old. Using many of the techniques in this book along with any free programs available for parents(as we have no external financial support), my son has come so far. My friends and family thought I was over the top with my charts, games, etc. recommended in this book. I even wrote a "Coles notes version of pertinent information from your book to provide to anyone in a caregiver role in my son's life so everyone was on the same page. My son is 3 and a half now, makes full eye contact with everyone, is extremely social, is toileting (#1) by himself and most importantly is speaking in full, grammatically correct sentences having two way conversations!!! The other day he turned to me randomly and told me:"I love you mamma" and gave me a big hug.This book has been my number one tool. It has not been an easy journey at all and we still have many challenges ahead, but from many of the resources I found, this one gave me the simplified tools to be able to provide therapy to my son without being discouraging or providing false hope. In combination with other resources and of course tweaking things to fit your own child (we had to make our work space a room because our son would only learn or work while running or dancing) and circumstances, I would highly recommend this to any parent with (actually), any child. Thank you Mary!

I am a BCBA who works in schools. I read this book for the first time this past spring and was so thrilled with the high-quality information presented in such an accessible way that I had my school district purchase a copy for all of our special education staff (teachers, paras, SLPs, and even some parents) so that we may all read it and collaborate about implementation together. It's such an empowering book because it is real, relatable, and gives people (even those with little to no background knowledge of ABA) some solid steps to take in working with children with autism.Thank you for this book and for your work, Mary Barbera! FIVE STARS!

If you are searching for information to support a loved one who has symptoms of autism or any suspected developmental delays, this book might just change your life. First, I need to share that the progress we have seen at home wasn't something I learned by skimming through this book. I have read and reread the information in this book and still refer back to it very frequently. The progress we have seen has required thousands of hours of intentional teaching using Mary's techniques. It has been a lot of work on the part of everyone in our family but within a few months of applying Mary's techniques my grandson was consistently responding to his name again whenever when it was called after a full year of regression. We all felt helpless and hopeless as it seemed that he was slipping farther and farther away into his own world and not responding to anything we did to try to play with him or teach him how to communicate. After reading Mary's book, we were able to identify things we needed to use to motivate him. This same child who could not attend to any direct teaching was gradually able to calm down enough and become motivated to learn when we paired learning activities with positive reinforcement. The screaming and temper tantrums were greatly reduced. He stopped banging his head and his anxiety and sensory aversions improved with daily exposure to learning activities. A few months later, he could name family members and identify several objects. Sometimes it seemed like we were stuck and could not see progress but I kept using the same techniques consistently every day. He finally learned how to point to things to show us what he wanted. Mary's philosophy is so empowering. Her medical knowledge empowered us to get referrals to specialists to identify and treat the underlying medical issues such as allergies, eczema, feeding difficulties, sleeping difficulties, and chronic constipation. Mary encourages parents to do everything possible once signs of autism are present to begin working with your child immediately. I am so thankful I took that advice because I would not want to look back 20 years from now and wonder if I should have done more. The methods Mary uses in this book to decrease problem behaviors and increase language are proven to be effective and based on many years of scientific research. After seeing the success from her book, I saved up enough to join Mary's online course. This has been the best investment I ever made to support my grandson in the recovery of all the skills that he lost to regressive autism. Our initial evaluations 18 months ago indicated moderate to severe autism, severely delayed expressive and receptive language skills, and moderate delays in social, motor and adaptive skills. Now he speaks in sentences!. We still have some issues we are dealing with but the future is so much brighter now knowing we have a child who can follow simple verbal directions and express his wants and needs. I never even knew this much progress could be possible! If you are on a wait list for an autism diagnosis or if your child shows some signs of developmental delays but did not qualify for an autism diagnosis this book is for you. If you have the diagnosis already and want to learn more about what you can do at home to support your child this book is for you. If you are a professional who works with children and want to learn how to shape behavior and do it in a way that is not emotionally harmful, does not use any negative reinforcement or punishment, and fully supports a child's emotional development this book is for you. If your child was recently diagnosed and the word autism feels like a death sentence with no possible way to recover, you must read this book to learn that in some cases, young children with autism can recover enough to be indistinguishable from their peers! The Verbal Behavior approach takes the science of ABA and breaks it down into an easy to implement format that anyone can use to help a child reach his or her fullest potential! I hope someday Mary finds the funding to distribute this information to every family who is impacted by autism. I hope insurance companies and state agencies will mandate and fund a parent training component to help families that are impacted by autism. There is nothing else out there (that I know of) that takes the science of ABA and simplifies it enough to help parents implement it in the home. Mary's book and online courses could have an enormous impact to help turn autism around for millions of families if a parent training component could be included with intensive ABA services and I hope to see that happen! Until then, if you are wanting to do everything you can to support someone you love who is showing symptoms of autism, I implore you to buy this book and check out Mary's video blogs and podcast titled "Turn Autism Around." Mary Barbera shares information she has gathered from real life experiences as a BCBA, registered nurse, and as a parent of a son with autism. Mary is always very cautious not to provide specific treatment advice but I am so thankful she took the time to write this book!

This is a wonderful, detailed, and easy to navigate and implement overview of verbal behavior for parents, caregivers, teachers, SLPs, and new ABA practitioners seeking an introduction to ABA VB. I am a parent of a child with autism and a BCBA and appreciated the synthesis of behavioral science with practical application and every day terminology and concepts that would empower and appeal to someone not well versed in ABA, but seeking an evidence based approach to help their child. It is also compelling as the author shares personal anecdotes of her own journey using ABA VB with her son. I recommend this book highly.

As an overall introduction to verbal behaviour and it's approach it's not bad. It explained terms like Manding and Tacting really well and gave simple easy to explain examples. I would suggest that any tutor or professional who wishes to gain a more theoretical and knowledgable understanding of verbal behaviour and it's comparisons to Lovaas style ABA to look for other books. I didn't feel I had learnt too much more from this book unfortunately but I would recommend to a novice.

This book looks at an ABA approach to developing speech in autistic children. Even if you're not convinced of the appropriateness of ABA for your child (and i'm not personally) this book still has some very good information about stages of speech, and what we should be working on first, so that more complex speech skills can have a firm footing. And lets face it we all want our kids to talk to us in real converstions right?

I would recommend this book to any parent and any speech delay because it will help . There is something different when it’s a mother of a child who has gone through the journey herself .Makes the it all the more helpful and insightful.

Quick, easy to read and apply. Thanks.

This is an excellent read - I highly recommended to any speech therapists and parents alike!