Verbal behavior & communication Glossary

Communication can use many forms

Augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC, includes unaided forms such as gesture and sign and aided forms such as picture systems, writing, and devices. A speech-generating device produces spoken output when the user selects or creates a message.

ASHA's AAC practice portal says AAC users should always have access to their communication tools or devices. Preserve positioning, access method, vocabulary, charging, backup communication, wait time, and partner skill. ABA staff may support an authorized system and responsive partners; they should not independently redesign vocabulary, layout, access method, or positioning.

A functional communication response is a recognizable response that serves a relevant communication function under defined conditions. It may be speech, AAC, sign, gesture, movement, writing, or another reliable form. Describe the message and partner response rather than requiring one topography.

Speaker and listener are functional roles

In behavior analysis, a speaker produces verbal behavior whose consequences are mediated by another person or a learned verbal community. A listener mediates consequences and may also respond to the speaker's behavior.

Listener responding is behavior under control of another person's verbal stimulus, often with additional contextual cues. It can include selecting, moving, finding, or completing an action. Accurate responding does not require eye contact, still hands, or vocal repetition.

Verbal behavior is the broader functional domain. The BACB Test Content Outline, 6th edition and ABAI basic-principles page identify verbal-behavior concepts as educational content. They do not prescribe an individual communication plan.

Verbal operants classify controlling relations

A mand is verbal behavior influenced by a relevant motivating operation and reinforced by a characteristic consequence, such as requesting a break and receiving one. A motivating operation in verbal behavior changes the current value of a consequence and behavior that has produced it. Essential needs and communication access should never be withheld to create motivation.

A tact is verbal behavior evoked by a nonverbal stimulus and maintained by generalized or conditioned social consequences. An echoic has point-to-point correspondence and formal similarity with a vocal verbal stimulus. An intraverbal is evoked by verbal stimuli without point-to-point correspondence, such as answering some questions or completing a familiar phrase.

These labels describe controlling relations, not lesson difficulty or personal worth. The same word can function differently across moments. Classification needs the antecedent, response, consequence, and relevant history.

Assess communication before selecting targets

Start with an inventory of messages the person already communicates, the forms and partners who recognize them, the settings where they work, and the delays or breakdowns that matter to the person. Include requests, refusals, comments, questions, help, pain, uncertainty, social connection, repair, and self-advocacy. Record whether partners honor a recognizable message and how long they take to respond.

Speech production, vocal imitation, device navigation, language comprehension, motor access, literacy, hearing, vision, and partner skill can call for different assessment and interdisciplinary support. A behavior-analytic classification should not replace speech-language, AAC, medical, or educational evaluation when those questions are present.

Teaching a new form should preserve every reliable existing form until the person chooses otherwise and the new response works at least as effectively in daily life.

Reading and writing include distinct relations

Textual behavior is a vocal or signed response with point-to-point correspondence to a written verbal stimulus and without formal similarity. Copying a text has point-to-point correspondence and formal similarity between written stimulus and written response.

Transcription produces written verbal behavior controlled by a spoken or signed verbal stimulus, with point-to-point correspondence and without formal similarity. A learner may show one relation without another, so assess reading comprehension, spelling, motor access, vision, language, and functional use separately.

Multiple variables often act together

Multiple control occurs when more than one variable affects one verbal response or one variable affects several responses. Convergent multiple control involves several variables influencing one response. Divergent multiple control involves one variable influencing several possible responses.

Audience control occurs when the presence or characteristics of a listener or audience influence verbal behavior because of past consequences. An autoclitic is secondary verbal behavior that qualifies, organizes, or affects how a listener responds to other verbal behavior.

Michael, Palmer, and Sundberg discuss multiple control of verbal behavior. The conceptual account can guide questions, but one observation rarely isolates every controlling variable.

A communication example

Eli is a fictional nine-year-old who uses speech and an AAC device. Across eight defined situations where a needed item is unavailable, Eli uses a recognizable help or request message in 6/8, 75%. Partners provide the item when available or give a clear answer within ten seconds for 5/6, 83.3% of messages.

The response and partner-response denominators stay separate. The team records message form, opportunity, prompt, answer, access to AAC, and Eli's view. These counts do not establish a broad verbal repertoire, one controlling variable, generalization, or treatment effect.

The current BACB Ethics Code addresses competence, client involvement, consent and assent when applicable, assessment, risk, and continuing evaluation for covered behavior analysts.

Explore clinical roles at Finni practices. Ask how clinicians protect AAC, honor direct communication, train partners, define opportunities, and measure whether messages work in daily life.