Submitted by:  Star Lipe, M.S., BCBA

A great way to increase production of spontaneous language is to encourage and develop your child’s tacting repertoire. Tacting is a fancy term for saying labeling. For example, if you ask your child, “What is this?” while showing a picture of a dog and they respond with “It’s a dog,” that is a tact.

Typically developing children will label or tact an item because they are provided with social attention. A child may point to a bug and say, “Bug!” and most likely their parent will make some sort of comment about the bug such as, “Wow, that’s a huge bug. Watch out or it might get you!” and start to tickle their child. This beginning interaction opens the door for conversation skills.

At Reaching Milestones we have started an Intensive Tacting procedure. We place posters of different items that our kiddos like around the clinic. We stop in front of the posters and teach our kiddos to touch one of the pictures and label it. After they label it, we make a comment about it, much like a parent would do naturally and provide social attention and maybe even an edible. The more praise and social attention we provide for their labeling around the clinic, the more it will happen. Our eventual goal is for our kiddos to point to something that’s in the natural environment and label it. When this happens, we provide a bunch social attention and praise – our kiddo just began a conversation!

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Submitted by: Maria Whiteway, M.Ed., BCBA

In 2010 I became a special education teacher for children with autism. Given that my classroom was part of the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program, I sincerely needed to learn a thing or two about ABA. Since I had several students who were non-verbal and others with limited verbal abilities, BCBAs trained me in Verbal Behavior. Simply put, Verbal Behavior applies ABA principles to language. While my intense training led me to become a BCBA, I still understand what it was like to hear unfamiliar terminology.

As parents, you are debriefed every session on your child’s progress. However, when a therapist uses terms like tact or intraverbal to describe your child’s accomplishments, you may walk away confused instead of delighted.

We know that knowledge is power, so here is a little cheat sheet on the ABCs of Verbal Behavior.

First and foremost, ABA is the science that implements behavioral procedures to improve socially significant (acceptable) behavior.

Again, Verbal Behavior is simply the application of these principles to language. Verbal Behavior can include talking, gestures, sign language, writing, using augmentative devices or utilizing picture systems. Verbal Behavior has been broken down into different verbal operants, so that we, as listeners, can respond appropriately to what a person is saying.

The main verbal operants will be explained using an ABC chart:

A= Antecedent (what happens before the child speaks)

B= Behavior (what the child said)

C= Consequence (what happens after the child speaks)

MAND

The first verbal operant is the Mand. Some common terms for this are request, ask, command, and/or demand. This operant is different from all others because when someone mands for something specific, they get it. Every other operant’s consequence is not specific to what was said.

TACT

The next operant is the Tact. Some common terms are labeling or naming. A tact has to do with the 5 senses. One can see, hear, smell, feel or taste something, so they will name what it is.

ECHOIC

Another operant is the Echoic. This is repeating what someone else says.

INTRAVERBAL

The next operant is the Intraverbal. Common terms for this are fill-in-the blank phrases (a pig says oink), word associations (socks and shoes), typical conversations and answering questions.

LISTENER RESPONDING

Another operant is Listener Responding. This generally involves people following directions. Think of it as the person is responding to what they are listening to or responding as a listener. 

MOTOR IMITATION

Motor imitation involves copying someone else’s movements.

Now that you know the ABCs of the main Verbal Operants, have some fun with them. When you are out and about, see if you can identify different operants that your family and friends produce. I know what it can be like to hear ABA jargon and wish you knew more. Hopefully this cheat sheet will help you, but if you still have questions, do not hesitate to ask your child’s therapist. You and your child are the most valuable members of the team at Reaching Milestones and we are always here to help!

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Providing a sample of the patients verbal and related skills is the first component of the VB-MAPP. The assessment has approximately 170 learning and language milestones that are balanced across 3 developmental levels from the ages of 0-18 months from 18- 30 months and lastly 30-48 months. Skills included in the assessment are mind, tact, and echoic plus a great more but that was just to keep the list short and to name a great few.

Providing a assessment that contains common learning and language barriers that children with Autism face or any other developmental disabilities is component number 2, the Barrier Assessment. The barriers that are being assessed are behavior problems, instructional control, defective minds, defective tact’s and a great few more. When these barriers are identified by the test then things can be done for a child to overcome his or her problem.

The third is the Transition Assessment, containing exactly 18 assessments. This third assessment can help identify whether a child is making meaningful progress. This assessment is a tool providing information to let it be known what needs to happen to meet a child’s learning needs. The assessment includes measures of the overall score of the VB-MAPP milestones and barriers assessments and many more skills.

The forth component is the VB-MAPP Task Analysis and skills tracking that provides further breakdown of the skills. It serves a complete learning and language skills curriculum guide. Verbal Behavior is very complicated and to overcome barriers of speech problems can be over whelming for a child.

The fifth and very last component is VB-MAPP placement, goals that correspond with the first four components. The placement guide provides directions specifically for what should be done. The intervention program are there to ensure the relevant parts that are necessary for the intervention that is included.

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