Intraverbals: 4 Things To Know in 2021

This week’s post continues the series on Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour. If you haven’t already, you should read the other posts about Manding, Echoics and Tacts. This post will tackle Intraverbals.

To recap, Skinner created the verbal operants and they are:

• Mands (requesting)
• Echoics (repeating what is heard)
• Tacts (labeling)
• Intraverbals (Answering questions or conversations)
• Autoclitics (phrases that impact the other operants)

What are Intraverbals?

Intraverbals are the verbal operant that happens in response to another’s verbal behaviour. Basically, that means that the words, comments, phrases we use to reply to another person. In other words, intraverbals are conversations we have with others.

How do we Teach Intraverbals?

At the beginning, intraverbals as taught with songs using a fill in the blank format. Some learners need visual supports for prompting. You can use this assessment by Dr. Mark Sundberg to get an idea of where your learner’s skills are:

For example:

• Instructor: (Holding a picture of a star): “Twinkle, twinkle, little ______”
  • Learner: “Star”

• Instructor: “Head, shoulders, knees __________”
  • Learner: “And toes!”

Once the learner has mastered fill in the blanks, ‘WH’ questions can be used in expanding the learner’s intraverbal repertoire.

For example:

• Instructor: “Where do you sleep?”
  • Learner: “In a bed.”

• Instructor: “What is your sister’s name?”
  • Learner: “Avery”

Why questions are generally kept until the end of an intraverbal program because they’re the most difficult to learn.

How long will it take to learn them?

As with all the verbal operants, the time it takes to master intraverbals will vary depending on the learner. Once the child has a strong mand and tact repertoire, it is appropriate to begin teaching this new verbal operant. There are many phases to this skill and it can become quite complex. This verbal operant isn’t generally mastered in a short time.

Why do we teach intraverbals?

Having a large intraverbal repertoire will help the leaner to engage in conversations. That is to say, that knowing how to respond to questions will allow the learner to be more sociable. Many learners spontaneously learn to ask questions once they have learned to answer them. Importantly, asking questions demonstrates to other our interest in them and helps build relationships.

If you’d like to discuss your child’s language program, please connect with us at Side by Side Therapy to learn more!