For speakers belonging to multiple verbal communities, functional analyses of verbal behavior allow for dynamic control over response topography. The simple practice of allowing the speaker the freedom to select the language of instruction minimizes cultural bias and hegemony. We extended the research on functional analyses of verbal behavior to…

The functions of an American Sign Language response were experimentally evaluated with a young boy diagnosed with autism. A functional analysis procedure based on that reported by Lerman et al. (2005) was used to evaluate whether the target sign response would occur under mand, tact, mimetic, or control conditions. The target sign was observed…