Fixing inaccuracies .....
I recently discovered that Autism Speaks has a horrible description of VB on their website. This is the link to the description Autism Speaks Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
I try my best to inform people/organizations when they make glaringly obvious mistakes such as these. Below is what I wrote to them:
I am not sure if this is the right email but I have a question about the content on the "Treatments for Autism Page" If I am not sending this to the right email, could you please direct me to the proper email? Thank you
First, I would like to start by saying that I greatly appreciate all that Autism Speaks does in order to promote awareness and access to resources for parents, caregivers, and providers. A lot of people turn to Autism Speaks in order to gain more information about services for their child. I am slightly concerned though because when I read your site's explanation of ABA and Verbal Behavior Intervention (which I am pretty sure is not an actual term), there are several errors. I have listed the items below that are incorrect. Parents are bombarded with so much information I think it is the duty of all organizations especially one as big as Autism Speaks to present accurate information. As such, I am hoping that you will edit your website to fix these errors so that parents are not confused. Here are the errors:
Under VBI
1. It says "Verbal Behavior Intervention is often seen as an adjunct to Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). Though both are based on theories developed by Skinner there are differences in concept." I don't know any well qualified behavior analysts that would call what they do "Verbal Behavior Intervention" This is a very confusing concept and it is very important that people are not led to believe that ABA and VB are two different things. Applied Behavior Analysis is the study of how people learn. It is a science. Verbal Behavior is part of this science. Just like Skinner described principles of reinforcement, he also described how language develops. The analogy I like to use is that Applied Behavior Analysis is the toolbox and Verbal Behavior is one of the tools. I think the easiest fix for this error would be to just delete this sentence.
2. It says "In the late 1950s and early 60's when Dr. Ivar Lovaas was developing his ABA principles, Skinner published Verbal Behavior which detailed a functional analysis of language." The main inaccuracy in this statement is that Lovaas developed ABA principles. A lot of the main principles of behavior analysis were described by Skinner and then those principles have been applied and researched by others. It would be more accurate to say "when Dr. Ivar Lovaas was first researching the application of behavioral principles as a treatment for autistic children."
3. It says "Both ABA and VB use similar formats to work with children. It is said that VB attempts to capture a child's motivation to develop a connection between the value of a word and the word itself. Many therapists are now using techniques of VB to bridge some of the gaps seen in ABA." As I mentioned above ABA is the science and VB is part of the science so it is impossible to have "similar formats" or "bridge the gap." VB is part of ABA. It sounds more like the description is trying to compare Lovaas based ABA to VB based ABA, which is fine, although I think even the description of Lovaas based is inaccurate but that is for them to tell you not me. I think the errors could be fixed by replacing "ABA" with Lovaas based ABA and VB with VB based ABA.
I know these might seem like silly distinctions but it is of the utmost importance that parents know that ABA is a broad science and that Lovaas and VB are part of this field. Otherwise you will have parents looking for things that basically don't exist such as "Verbal Behavior Intervention" or "Certified Verbal Behavior Therapist" or "Certified Verbal Behavior Interventionist" etc
Thank you for your time and again for providing such an excellent resource for parents.
Please feel free to email them as well. This is the email I used, I will update if a different email is needed: webeditors@autismspeaks.org
Posted by Megan DeLeon BCBA at 1/6/2010 8:53 PM 
Categories: aBA and Autism
Tags: BCBA behavior analysis autism behavior therapy resources verbal behavior autism treatment autism services
Categories: aBA and Autism
Tags: BCBA behavior analysis autism behavior therapy resources verbal behavior autism treatment autism services
Good job and thank you for taking the time to write up your observations and corrections and forward them to Autism Speaks.
Large organizations carry a certain amount of authority in the information that they present to an interested public, especially in the case of a public vitally dependent on timely and accurate information. Creating artificial dichotomies or misunderstandings and may prevent or delay people from making the best informed treatment decisions that they can on behalf of their children.
And historically, that Lovaas developing ABA vs. applying it (in a relatively novel for its time and successful way, although there were others, such as Todd Risley, who were also working with children with autism)is a real clanger, and I would have expected that to have been proofed better before being disseminated.
Again, thank you.
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(smile) apologies for being so ungrammatical. It was late, and I was obviously not being very careful about proofing myself.
Again, thanks for your efforts in correcting the record in the interest of families and children.
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