One of the things I’m enjoying the most about my studies at UMass Global is how each week builds upon the last. We’ve spent time exploring reinforcement, punishment, motivating operations, stimulus control, and generalization. This week, we started learning about one of the most fascinating areas of behavior analysis: verbal behavior!
When many people think about communication, they think just about words, grammar, or conversation. In ABA, however, communication is viewed from a slightly different perspective. Instead of asking just what someone says, behavior analysts ask why they said it. In other words, what environmental variables influenced that communication?
This week, we focused on two of the most important elementary verbal operants: mands and tacts.
Mands: Communicating Our Wants and Needs
A mand is controlled by a motivating operation and is reinforced by receiving the specific item or outcome that was requested.
Simply put, we ask for things because we want or need them.
Examples include:
- Asking for water when you’re thirsty.
- Requesting a break during a difficult task.
- Saying “Help, please.”
- Asking for a favorite toy.
One thing I appreciate about learning about mands is how naturally they fit into everyday life. We all make requests throughout the day, often without realizing that our behavior is being influenced by motivating operations.
For many learners receiving ABA services, teaching functional mands can dramatically improve communication while reducing challenging behaviors. When individuals learn effective ways to ask for what they need, they often no longer need to rely on behaviors like crying, aggression, or property destruction to communicate.
Tacts: Connecting Language to the World Around Us
Unlike mands, tacts are controlled by nonverbal stimuli and are reinforced by generalized conditioned reinforcers, such as praise, attention, or acknowledgment.
In simple terms, a tact is labeling something in the environment.
Examples include:
- Seeing a dog and saying, “Dog.”
- Looking outside and saying, “It’s raining.”
- Pointing to an airplane and saying, “Airplane!”
- Saying, “That’s a red car.”
Tacts help us share experiences with others and build conversations. They also play an important role in language development because they allow us to describe, identify, and learn about the world around us.
More Than Just Talking
One of the biggest misconceptions about verbal behavior is that it only refers to speech. In reality, verbal behavior includes any form of communication that is reinforced through another person. That could mean speaking, signing, writing, pointing to pictures, or even using a speech-generating device. So what this means essentially is that every request, label, question, and response serves a function, and understanding that function is key to teaching meaningful communication.
Looking Forward: Week 5
As we wrap up another week of learning, I’m excited to continue exploring Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior in next week’s coursework.
We’ll shift our focus to two additional elementary verbal operants: echoics and intraverbals.
We will be learning how echoic behavior involves repeating verbal stimuli with point-to-point correspondence and formal similarity; essentially, accurately reproducing what another person says. Echoics play an important role in early language development and are often one of the first verbal skills taught in ABA intervention.
We will also be exploring intraverbal behavior, which is the foundation of conversations, social interactions, and academic learning. Unlike echoics, intraverbals are responses to verbal stimuli without point-to-point correspondence. They allow us to answer questions, complete songs and phrases, tell stories, and engage in meaningful back-and-forth conversations.
Understanding how these verbal operants work together provides another piece of the puzzle in helping individuals develop functional, independent communication skills. I’m looking forward to learning how these concepts are applied in both clinical practice and everyday interactions, and I’ll be sharing my reflections here next week.
Until then, thanks for following along on my journey through graduate school! Every week reinforces that behavior analysis is about so much more than behavior reduction….it’s about helping people communicate, connect, and thrive!
See you next week!
Rose Ally xoxo
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