Association for Behavior Analysis International

Dr. Jennifer Longano received her BS in education from the State University of New York at Geneseo. She then earned her MA M.Phil, and Ph.D. in applied behavior analysis from Teachers College, Columbia University. Jennifer Longano is a supervisor of the Early Intervention Program for the Fred S. Keller School located in the suburbs of New York City. She has worked for the Fred S. Keller School, a CABAS® model school, since 2008 supervising both preschool and early intervention classrooms for children with and without disabilities. She also is an Adjunct Assistant Professor for Teachers College and has taught courses in Applied Behavior Analysis, Single-Case Design, and Inclusion for the Health and Behavior Studies Department. She has earned several CABAS® ranks and currently holds a Senior Behavior Analyst and an Assistant Research Scientist rank. Her research has focused on verbal developmental cusps including: the source of reinforcement for naming, procedures to test for and induce naming, pre-foundational verbal developmental cups and capabilities, and conditioned reinforcement related to observing responses.

I will discuss the acquisition of bidirectional naming from the verbal developmental perspective. Observing responses selected out by conditioned reinforcers can set the occasion for the acquisition of verbal developmental cups and capabilities. These observing responses establish a history of stimulus-stimulus pairings, which set the occasion for the listener and speaker repertoires to be joined. Once joined, more complex cusps and capabilities can be acquired allowing for the emergence of incidental language, bidirectional operants, and advanced naming repertoires. For some individuals, listener and speaker repertoires are not joined naturally. Thus, protocols that can arrange the environmental contingencies to occasion the acquisition of bidirectional naming can be implemented. In CABAS® model schools, which are affiliated with Teachers College Columbia University, ongoing research has focused on identifying when bidirectional naming is present or missing, the types of naming repertoires, protocols to induce bidirectional naming, and the best instructional practices to accelerate learning when bidirectional naming is present.

The following presentation will be for individuals interested in verbal behavior and verbal behavior developmental theory with a heavy focus on the source of reinforcement for incidental language acquisition or bidirectional naming. The presentation will also discuss how to identify when Naming is present or absent, different types of naming experiences, and procedures to induce naming. The audience should have some understanding (intermediate level) of verbal developmental theory and naming.