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<title>The Analysis of Verbal Behavior</title>
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<h1>Verbal Behavior</h1>
<div class="firstPara"><span class="dropcap">W</span>elcome to a very important area of the Cambridge Center Website dedicated to verbal behavior. A great deal of our interactions with others involves verbal behavior, and many people are interested in what happens when you talk to someone. Your behavior when you are speaking is called verbal behavior, and the behavior of the person or persons listening to you (if they respond in some way to what you've said) is called verbally governed behavior. </div>
<p class="pageContent">Verbal behavior is very important because it happens all the time, all around us, and the ways in which we talk to each other influence how sensitive we are to changes in the environment, how we interact with each other, and how we raise and educate our children. Welcome to the verbal behavior section. </p>
<p class="quotation"><em><a href="verbal_behavior_catania.cfm"><strong>Introduction to Verbal Behavior</strong></a></em> by A. Charles Catania </p>
<p class="pageContent">What is verbal behavior? When we talk about what we do with words, we're likely to say that we try to communicate things with words: information or feelings or ideas or emotions or thoughts. But we do something even more fundamental with words. Words give us a very efficient way to influence the behavior of others. We communicate items of information or convey our thoughts or ideas because others often act upon them; we express our feelings and emotions because others often then behave differently toward us. Read this excellent introduction to verbal behavior. </p>
<p class="quotation"><em><strong><a href="../parenting/parenting_talking.cfm">Talking with Kids: The Early Years</a></strong></em> by Janet Twyman and the Cambridge Center Parenting Group </p>
<p class="pageContent">Research has shown that the number and quality of the words a child hears in the early years of life have a tremendous impact on the fundamental circuits in the human brain. A child's vocabulary development is closely tied to their early language experiences and to their ability to think rationally, solve problems, and reason abstractly. Learn how you can help improve your child's language abilities. </p>
<p class="quotation"><em><a href="vb_book_list.cfm"><strong>Recommended Books on Verbal Behavior</strong></a></em></p>
<p id="bottomCredit">Do you have a question about Verbal Behavior, Verbally Governed Behavior, or the articles in this section? Contact <A href="mailto:catania@umbc.edu">A. Charles Catania</A> or <A href="mailto:JST17@imap.columbia.edu">Janet Twyman</a> directly by email.</p>
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<EM>Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies </EM>Publication Office<br>
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<br>336 Baker Avenue<br>Concord, Massachusetts U.S.A. 01742-2107<br><br>
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