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Textual behavior is reading! It’s important to note that just because someone is engaging in textual behavior, it does not mean they are understanding what is being read.

Transcription is writing and spelling what is being spoken, like taking notes during class! Similar to textual behavior, there i...

Listener Responding (LR) sometimes known as receptive language, requires the listener to respond to another’s verbal behavior.

Here’s an example: if you say “Where are your shoes!?” and your kids respond by getting their shoes. Or maybe in the classroom you say “Everyone get your glue!” and your s...

An echoic is what occurs when verbal behavior has point-to-point correspondence with its preceding verbal stimulus (Skinner, 1957). In layman’s terms, it’s a verbal imitation of what comes immediately before it; an “echo” of someone else's words.

The ability to echo words is an important skill in ...

Intraverbal means responding to the spoken (or signed) words of others without repeating exactly what the other person just said, as in a conversation.

For example, one might say to a friend, “What are you eating for lunch today?” And the friend replies “salad”; a teacher might say to a student, “...

A tact simply is a label for something.

A tact (a word derived from “contact” with the environment) occurs when you see, smell, taste, hear, or touch something in your environment, and then label it. When you tact something, you're not responding to someone asking "What is that?" you're responding...

The easiest way to remember what a mand is is to think of it as a comMAND from the learner. Its is essentially a request from the child. A learner will mand for an item, activity or information when motivation is high.

For example, if a child is consuming something salty, they will become thirsty ...

The Premack Principle is an incredibly useful tool to keep in your ABA toolbox! The premack principle is otherwise known as “Grandma’s Law”. The term Grandma’s Law comes from the age old demand of “first eat your veggies, then you can have dessert”.

Using the words “first, then” really clarify to ...

Token Economies are used as a contingency for positive reinforcement with a learner. They are a system for providing positive reinforcement to a learn by giving them tokens for completing tasks or behaviors in desired ways. Consider these tokens kid currency.

Preference assessments are assessments used to find potential reinforcers for a learner. These assessments are structured methods that are utilized to help find highly preferred items or actions, that can be used as reinforcers during therapy sessions to keep motivation levels high, when we are teac...

A BIP is a Behavior Intervention Plan. A BIP typically comes after an FBA. It will have all of the individual's target behaviors listed and defined. It should have preventative strategies (antecedent interventions) in addition to consequence interventions (responding after the behavior has occurred)...

An FBA is a Functional Behavior Assessment. A FBA is an assessment that may be completed by the BCBA. An FBA has several parts. Identifying and defining the target behavior. Identifying antecedents and consequences (what’s happening before and after the target behavior?). Identifying a hypothesis of...

Direct Instruction (DI) is a curriculum based, instructional methodology used for teaching children with autism. The DI method involves scripted teaching to ensure that children receive efficient instruction along with appropriate error correction procedures. Direct Instruction includes a set of tea...