Summary The topic of today's reading was Behavioral Language Assessment: Part 2 (VB-MAPP). In one of the assigned readings, Assessing Your Child, we read how most speech-language pathologists view language as either expressive or receptive and that speaking is a learned behavior controlled by environmental variables such as motivation, reinforcement, and antecedent stimuli. As we speak, we receive a kind of recognition for our speech and this is how language begins to take shape in normally developing children. The speech pathologist defines expressive language as what is known as the four primary verbal operants (mand, tact, echoic, and interverbal) and receptive language as the nonverbal operant (imitation and visual performance). However, to evaluate the child's abilities, parents or teachers can use reinforcers to reward the child's actions, as stated in the second reading, Developing Reinforcers. The rewards of the actions strengthened their resolve and caused their good behavior to increase in the future. Everyone responds to reinforcement, even children with developmental delays, children are no different and when they are rewarded for behaviors, they will respond positively. Additionally, this reading talked about how to choose your child's reinforcers such as food, videos, or DVDs, as well as how to develop reinforcers and match them to the learning environment. Matching is the process in which parents or teachers, as well as the classroom and materials, are paired with these items of interest. Although matching is an ongoing process and is not something that can be done in a few days or a week, matching must be strengthened over the course of time that a caregiver or professional works with the child. It… half of the paper… the receptive language level doesn't provide as much information as knowing how the child uses words, how often, and where. This is why I believe more in using the VB program and breaking the child's language into smaller units instead of looking at it as a whole. In conclusion, it seems more reasonable and accurate to evaluate the child in all areas, and use each child's abilities to help them learn. Furthermore, I found the implementation of reinforcements useful, it seems right to me that the child is able to do something he likes throughout the learning process. Parents have the satisfaction of seeing their children's language improve and children are motivated to do something they enjoy because even for children without developmental disorders or delays the learning process is somewhat strenuous. Discussion question1.2.