The Ontogenetic Selection of Verbal Capabilities: Contributions of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior Theory to a More Comprehensive Understanding of Language

I describe how Skinner’s (1957) Verbal Behavior and subsequent research that extended his theory contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of language with regard to the ontogenetic selection of verbal behavior. A large corpus of research has shown the applied utility of the theory for inducing verbal behavior in children missing certain verbal capabilities and developmental cusps. Other related work on Relational Frame theory, Naming theory, and Stimulus Equivalence provided the basis for identifying verbal developmental cusps and capabilities. Evidence on the initial independence of the speaker and listener, and research identifying the experiences that lead to the joining of the speaker and listener within the skin, suggests an empirically based theory of verbal development. This work identifies the preverbal foundations, the speaker and listener components and the experiences that lead to the capability for learning language incidentally and productive language. The growing evidence on the ontogenetic sources of language and its development in children complements the work of other scholarship in language and provides neuroscience with better tools to validate the relation between brain activity and the effects of experience.