| Verbal behavior cusp | A cusp allows a child to learn things that could not be learned before, learn faster, or learn in new ways | |
| Verbal Milestones: Pre-Verbal Foundational Cusps | ||
| Metamorphosis status: Egg-Caterpillar | ||
| Cusp | Description | Protocol Procedure & Research |
| Orient to Others’ Voices | A verbal behavior cusp that enables one to attend to adults’ voices | Voice Conditioning Protocol [41] [42] |
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| New Learning Possibilities: Orients towards speaker-name called and direction given Orients towards speaker-name called and approval given Orients towards speaker entering the room | |
| Orient to Others’ Faces/Presence of Others | A verbal behavior cusp that enables one to attend to adults’ faces | Face Conditioning Protocol [37] |
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| New Learning Possibilities: Looks at speaker’s face when greeted with name Looks at speaker’s face when given an approval Looks at adult’s face when adult comes to eye level within 2 feet Looks at peer’s face when peer comes to eye level within 2 feet Use coordinated eye contact with words and/or other strategies to communicate Looks at parent or caregiver when they leave the room Approaches adult and physically guide his/her body part to assist | |
| Generalized Identity Matching | A verbal behavior cusp that enables one to match novel stimuli (generalized match to sample) | 2D Conditioning Protocol using stimulus-stimulus pairing [39] [40] 3D Conditioning Protocol [38] [43] |
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| New Learning Possibilities: Visual discrimination learning becomes possible. | |
| “Capacity for Sameness” Across Senses | A verbal behavior cusp that enables one to match sameness across gustatory, auditory, visual, olfactory, and tactile senses | Sensory Matching Protocol using multiple exemplar instruction [44] |
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| New Learning Possibilities: Cross-modal relations become possible | |