Many years ago I loved to watch a television series about a young man from the country who joined the Marines, and his adventures in boot training. I'm sure many of you have also seen this program. This poor marine recruit's drill sergeant had a habit of yelling the title of this chapter at his platoon whenever they did not shout responses to him loud enough. Each time he yelled "I can't hear yooou!" at his platoon each man would repeat the correct answer at a bit louder volume. Finally, the volume was loud enough that the drill sergeant was satisfied and he would reward the platoon with silence which indicated his acceptance of their volume. If you are a marine and are terrified of displeasing your drill sergeant, this technique will work fine on you.

If you have a child who has a problem with aphonia, which is a condition where the child cannot or does not speak or speaks in a whisper or very quiet voice, this method absolutely will not work. I think the drill sergeant's approach is the main one used with children with this problem.

Unfortunately, there are children who either will not speak or for some reason have never learned to speak properly. There are also some children who have an organic disorder which makes it impossible for them to speak. Those who can, but will not speak are prime candidates for behavior modification rule number 7. This is the rule on shaping behavior to get some behavior to occur when it has previously never occurred.

Rebecca (not her real name) was a little girl who would rarely speak and when she did her voice was just a whisper that could barely be heard. She was diagnosed as having aphonia. This is a fancy name doctors use to impress us. It just means she does not speak. Aphonia means "without speech." She was examined and it was determined she had the ability to speak--she just didn't do it. Naturally, her parents were very concerned, and rightly so. This kind of behavior brings about severe problems in communication, and communication is necessary to get along in the world. The origin of this kind of problem is not known for sure, but it has been found to persist for years in some children.

Naturally, Rebecca had been seen by several specialists, but to no avail. When she was brought to the psychological clinic, she met some new doctors who had a very different approach. They reasoned since everything else had been tried and had failed, behavior modification techniques just might succeed. The doctors at the clinic examined her history and observed Rebecca and her mother interacting and decided she was a good candidate for "shaping."

Remember I said earlier the undivided attention of a significant adult is a powerful reward for children. The doctors at this new clinic were nice to her and she immediately developed a liking for them. Not only were these people adults who were paying a lot of attention to her but they were doctors too. This seemed to impress Rebecca a lot. There is nothing like a little kindness to get a child to like you. Being kind to a child is also an easy thing to do. They can be very nice little people.

Of course, being kind is not enough to change the behavior of a child. The kindness and attention need to be associated with the child's behavior in the correct manner if they are to be useful in changing the child's behavior. You will find behavior can be shaped with kindness, praise and attention.

The end response desired for Rebecca was obviously for her to speak clearly and distinctly and with enough volume so she could communicate with others effectively. The initial response had to be something she could already do and did with a high enough frequency that it could be rewarded often. Since breathing is a behavior she must do and did quite regularly and since it is necessary for speaking, her psychologists decided this was a good starting point.

To get to know Rebecca better and also to begin gently shaping her voice, the first few sessions were therefore spent in teaching her some breathing exercises for the same reason singers use breathing exercises to strengthen their voices. While the exercises were taking place, any time Rebecca made attempts to speak the psychologist would immediately give her lavish praise and approval. She responded to this with great pleasure. Obviously, she was being rewarded by the psychologist's attention. Proper responses to instructions for the breathing exercises were being consistently rewarded.

If you arrange the breathing exercises properly, you will naturally get some vocal sounds to occur at times and this is just what the psychologists did. Each time Rebecca made any vocal sound other than breathing, they really heaped on the praise and attention. After a bit, they reduced and then eliminated the praise for breathing properly and replaced it with praise for sounds she made. She was enjoying her sessions immensely. At no time was she fussed at or criticized. When she had difficulty with the exercises or was just uncooperative, the psychologists merely ignored that part of her behavior and continued heaping on the attention when she made some sounds with her voice.

Little by little, the psychologists required louder sounds before the praise was given. Since Rebecca was old enough to read and, in fact, did read quite well silently, the psychologist decided to use reading as a framework for speaking. First, consonant sounds were "shaped," followed by having her read words from her books. At first, these words were spoken almost in a whisper, but soon she was saying them in a louder voice. Gradual shaping finally increased her vocal volume to a normal level.

Rebecca was reading aloud for the first time in her life, but she was not speaking in a conversational manner when she talked to other people. At this point, this was a relatively simple process to shape. She was already reading at a good volume and it was just a matter of talking with her and applying interest, attention, and praise when she would speak louder in conversation. This was the most important aspect of the process. If she was not able to speak to others, she could never function effectively in the real world.

The next step involved helping her generalize her new-found speaking ability to other social situations. For this, the psychologists gradually introduced other people into the room during their sessions. These other people were confederates of the psychologists and were instructed about the usefulness of praise and attention when Rebecca was speaking with them. Finally, Rebecca was speaking naturally with that group of people and to people she would see in the clinic. Her mother said she was also speaking appropriately in the world away from the clinic.

Her mother was enthusiastic about the progress Rebecca had made, and continued the process at home by talking with Rebecca a lot about mother and daughter things. This not only helped maintain Rebecca's speaking ability, but helped them grow closer together as parent and child--not a bad outcome at all.

Not all children with speaking problems have the kind of problem Rebecca had. Some refuse to speak and some are not encouraged to speak. Some are even taught not to speak. I am reminded of an old joke:

This may seem a bit facetious, but in real life a lot of children have parents who anticipate their every need and provide it without the child having to ask. I have seen a child go to the refrigerator and slap on the door until his mother got up and poured him a glass of juice. This kid was able to communicate just fine with his mother with a slap on the door, but I doubt this approach will work very well when he is in school or working on a job.

I'll never forget a small boy I was called on to test in an elementary school. This was early in my career and I did a lot of testing in those days. The clinic where I worked provided curb service and I had to go around to the schools and give tests to some of the children who were having some kind of problem.

The boy in question had the problem of not speaking. He was getting along fairly well because his teachers had always tried to teach him as best they could even though he would not talk. Yes, there are ways a psychologist can give tests to someone who does not talk. At any rate, this boy was not being required to talk because he had his needs met without talking. It was reported to me that he did talk only to his sister and to no one else, so he had the ability to talk.

It seemed to be a sort of a game with him. I tried some trickery to see if I could get him to say something. He was a smart little rascal and I couldn't outsmart him. There were a few times I almost got a word or two out of him, but I could see him catching himself just in time. I was only a tester on this case and my responsibility and authority were limited to writing a report and recommending a plan of treatment. This boy was an excellent candidate for behavior modification and shaping, but I will never know what was actually carried out. His teacher seemed very interested in him and willing to do whatever was necessary. I hope she tried some of my recommendations. They mostly involved shaping his speech by gradually requiring more and more of him before he got the result he wanted. I hope it worked. He was a very nice little boy.

You may never have to deal with problems exactly like these, or as serious as these. But these examples can give you a further insight into the technique of shaping. It is a technique which can be useful in many situations.