Using Storytelling to Teach Complex Verbal Repertoires: An Interprofessional Collaboration Across Cultures of Practice

Presented by:

Trina D. Spencer, PhD, BCBA-D, Department of Applied Behavioral Science, Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, University of Kansas

Douglas B. Petersen, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-CL, Division of Communication Disorders, University of Wyoming

Abstract

Collaborative practice between speech-language therapists and behaviour analysts offers a powerful opportunity to build rich, flexible, and socially meaningful language repertoires for children. Oral storytelling is a familiar and valued practice among Australian speech pathologists, and its use can be further enriched by teaching and analysis strategies drawn from behaviour analysis. Generative language is efficiently achieved by teaching manipulative autoclitic frames (Alessi, 1987; Skinner, 1957), which are naturally present in stories, however they are poorly researched and understood. Behaviour analysts are generally skilled at assessing and teaching elementary verbal operants with an emphasis on their functional control but may struggle to promote large unit verbal repertoires their clients/students need for social and academic success. Because several layers of manipulative autoclitic frames can be practiced simultaneously via storytelling, children easily acquire sophisticated large unit and flexible verbal repertoires.

In this workshop, Trina and Doug will provide a tutorial on how to work collaboratively with speech pathologists to build complex social and academic repertoires. They will introduce a model of interprofessional collaboration that positions each profession as a distinct culture, facilitates productive and respectful conversations, and reduces barriers related to disciplinary centrism (Kirby et al., 2022). They will also illustrate the power of interprofessional collaboration through their joint research on oral storytelling that has impacted thousands of children with and without disabilities across the globe. Finally, participants will learn ways to assess and teach storytelling that lead to extensive generalisation to academic and social communication.

Learning Objectives

Participants will explain their ethical responsibility to collaborate with other professionals for the benefit of their clients.
Participants will identify the steps/actions required of humble behaviourists.
Participants will describe the power of manipulative autoclitic frames for teaching.
Participants will identify strategies to build robust verbal repertoires, including large-unit responses, to support social and academic communication

Earn 8.0 BACB CEU/ABAA PDU, including 2.0 Ethics

About the Presenters:

Douglas B. Petersen, PhD, BC-CLS
Dr. Petersen is a Professor and the Maggie & Dick Scarlett Endowed Chair in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Wyoming. His interdisciplinary research focuses on advancing the validity and reliability of dynamic assessment and structured literacy interventions for school-age children, particularly those at risk for language and reading disorders. With a background spanning speech-language pathology, education, and literacy development, Dr. Petersen is dedicated to improving equitable access to high-quality assessment and instruction for diverse populations. His robust research agenda has resulted in numerous peer-reviewed publications, invited national and international presentations, and the development of widely used assessment tools and interventions. Dr. Petersen values translational science, researcher-practitioner collaboration, and the creation of accessible resources that bridge research to real-world educational settings.

Trina D. Spencer, PhD, BCBA-D

Dr. Spencer is a senior scientist and director of the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project at University of Kansas and holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Applied Behavioral Sciences, Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, and Special Education. Drawing from speech-language pathology, applied linguistics, education, and behavior analysis, she concentrates her efforts on the oral academic language that serves as a foundation to the reading and writing of preK to 3rd grade students, with and without disabilities. She maintains a spirited research agenda that has yielded 73 peer review publications, 161 invited presentations, $15M in external funding, and several commercialized curricula, interventions, professional development systems, and assessment tools. Her multi-tiered interventions and assessment tools are used broadly in the United States, but also internationally. Dr. Spencer values researcher-practitioner partnerships, community engagement, and cross disciplinary collaborations to accomplish high impact and innovative applied research.