September 20, 2016

September 20, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

I tell each of my students and clients that they are pioneers of a new way communicating. It is important to understand and acknowledge that we haven’t had any ongoing Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB). 

Although we have had brief moments of SVB, we have not had it continuously, as we were not skillful enough and as we didn’t know enough about the environment in which we are be able to continue it.

Each time we have SVB in an accidental manner, we are going to be faced again with the frustration of losing it as we are unable to re-establish it. It is out of a nagging longing that we pay closer attention.

Our lack of knowledge about what is needed for SVB to be possible is such that we want it to happen when it can’t happen, but we fail to take notice of what is available when it happens. Improvement is possible. 

We are unknowingly mostly busy with Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). Since we don’t know the SVB/NVB distinction, we neither recognize SVB nor NVB. We are familiar with NVB as we have had ongoing NVB. 

Familiarity with NVB doesn’t do us any good if it isn’t contrasted with SVB. We can only know NVB in contrast with SVB and SVB in contrast with NVB. In other words, we cannot know one without the other. 

As long as we know neither one of these universal response classes we continue to believe that NVB is more important than SVB. Oddly, we go out of our way to prove that NVB is right and we mainly neglect SVB. 

We have more NVB than SVB because environments in which NVB occur require less of our attention than environments in which SVB occurs. Our lack of attention for our environment sets the stage for NVB.

Speakers affect listeners with their voice, but this topic is usually off limits. We can see and hear how listeners are affected, but we fail to notice how we ourselves are affected by the sound of our own voice.