Intraverbal

The verbal stimulus and response differ

If someone asks, “What music do you want?” and the person replies, “Jazz,” the words in the response do not match corresponding parts of the question. That exchange may involve intraverbal control.

Repeating “jazz” immediately after hearing “jazz” has a different relation and may be echoic. Saying “jazz” while seeing an album cover may include tact control. The same spoken or AAC form can participate in different relations.

Conversation involves more than one operant

Real conversation includes questions, requests, comments, reactions, repair, topic changes, pauses, and listener feedback. It often involves the current setting, private events, memory, motivating variables, and prior language together.

The intraverbal label can clarify one part of an exchange. It should not reduce conversation to isolated fill-in-the-blank trials or imply that one correct answer represents social connection.

Multiple control is common

A response may be influenced by a question, visible object, recent event, audience, and desired outcome at once. Record relevant context and uncertainty. Avoid declaring one source from the words alone.

The ABAI basic-principles page and BACB Test Content Outline include verbal behavior and multiple control as educational or examination content. They do not diagnose language or establish an individual program.

Choose natural, meaningful targets

Useful goals might include answering a safety question, telling a chosen story, asking a follow-up question, sharing an opinion, correcting a misunderstanding, or participating in a preferred group. The person should have a reason to communicate beyond producing the expected word.

Respect silence, topic refusal, privacy, culture, multilingual communication, scripting, and alternative response forms. A practiced answer can be useful without becoming mandatory in every interaction.

Scripted accuracy has limits

Repeated question cards can produce narrow stimulus control. A learner may answer familiar wording while a small change, new partner, or natural distraction disrupts performance. Probe meaningful variations and avoid constant correction during ordinary conversation.

Teach repair strategies such as “I don't know,” “say it another way,” “give me time,” or a topic-change message when the person wants them. These responses can be more functional than guessing.

Sample natural exchanges alongside teaching

Define a conversation sample by setting, partner, duration, and eligible exchange rather than counting only adult questions. Record the person's initiations, replies, comments, questions, repairs, pauses, topic changes, and chosen endings. Also record partner wait time, interruptions, acknowledgments, and repair support.

Keep structured teaching in a separate row. A correct answer during a fixed drill may show learning under that wording, while natural use asks whether the response works amid changing topics and cues. Compare raw counts and examples instead of creating one broad “conversation score.” Invite the person to rate comfort or choose whether the exchange continues. Review cultural and multilingual patterns with qualified people who understand the communication community.

Sample quiet and busy settings when both matter. Note familiar and unfamiliar partners, topic choice, device access, and whether the person initiated the exchange. These details help the team distinguish a narrow wording problem from a broader access or language question.

A fictional garden conversation

Rowan chooses to discuss plants during a community-garden group. Across nine eligible exchanges, Rowan answers or adds a related comment in a chosen communication form in 6 of 9. Partners wait the agreed time and respond to the message in 5 of 6.

Report 6 of 9 for Rowan and 5 of 6 for partners. Code visible plants, questions, prior comments, and requested outcomes as possible influences without claiming a single cause. The observations do not measure overall language ability.

Keep communication multimodal

ASHA's AAC portal describes multimodal communication and says AAC users should always have access to their tools or devices. Accept speech, AAC, sign, gesture, writing, and other reliable forms.

Provide wait time and a way to decline, pause, correct, or end the exchange. Do not require eye contact, rapid speech, or a specific sentence form before recognizing an understandable contribution.

Measure natural use and experience

Track eligible exchanges, response relevance, communication form, latency, prompts, partner wait and response, repair, generalization, maintenance, withdrawal, and the person's experience. Keep structured teaching and natural conversation samples separate.

The current BACB Ethics Code addresses competence, collaboration, client involvement, understandable communication, consent and assent when applicable, assessment, risk, and evaluation for covered professionals. Coordinate language concerns with a qualified SLP.