  According to Skinner, language is learned when children's verbal  operants are brought under the ‘control’ of environmental conditions as a result of training by their caregivers. They are  rewarded (by, e.g., parental approval) or punished (by, say, a  failure of comprehension) for their various linguistic productions  and as a result, their dispositions to verbal behavior gradually  converge on those of the wider language community. Likewise, Skinner  held, ‘understanding’ the utterances of others is a  matter of being trained to perform appropriate behaviors in response  to them: one understands ‘Shut the door!’ to the extent  that one responds appropriately to that utterance.