Where verbal deficits exist in children, one method of exceptional promise uses operant conditioning techniques to establish and modify verbal behavior. Modifications and extensions take place as the function of direct interaction between an experimenter and the child. Assuming that ideal teachers for such children, given the availability of…

Previous studies have shown that American mothers, in contrast to Japanese, do more lively chatting to their babies, and that as a result, the American babies have a generally higher level of vocalization and, particularly, they respond with greater amounts of happy vocalization and gross motor activity than do Japanese babies. Thus, it appears…