The verbal behaviour approach: mands, tacts and teaching a child to ask

Most of us think of language as a list of words with meanings: 'water' means the clear thing in the glass. The verbal behaviour approach, often shortened to VB, adds a second question: what is the word doing for the child at that moment? A child who says 'water' because they are thirsty is asking. A child who says 'water' while pointing at a puddle is naming. A child who says 'water' when Nani asks 'What do fish live in?' is answering. Same word, three different jobs.

This matters because children do not always carry a word from one job to another on their own. A child may name twenty animals in a picture book and still have no way to ask for a drink. A VB programme checks each job separately and teaches the ones that are missing, starting with the ones that will make the biggest difference to the child's day.

The approach sits inside applied behaviour analysis. It is not a separate therapy, and it is not speech therapy. Many ABA programmes use VB ideas for the language part of the plan, often mixed with play-based methods. The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), developed in 1985, is built on the same ideas.

Verbal behaviour has its own vocabulary, and you will see these words in your child's goals and progress reports. The table gives the main categories, plus listener responding, which programmes teach alongside them, with everyday examples. Any of them can be spoken, signed, typed or shown with a picture or a device: the category is about the job the communication does, not the form it takes.

A mand is usually the first target, but a good programme keeps an eye on all five. A child who can repeat anything but never asks, or names everything but cannot answer a simple question about their day, has a gap the plan can work on.

Requesting is the one kind of communication that pays the child back straight away. Ask for the swing, get the swing. Because the reward is the thing the child already wanted, nobody needs stickers or praise to keep it going, and the child learns quickly that communicating works.

It also changes behaviour. Many children who cry, grab, hit or drop to the floor are trying to get something, or to get away from something, and have no faster way to do it. Teaching a clear request for each of those needs is the idea behind functional communication training. Requests for 'help', 'break', 'finished' and 'no' matter as much as requests for food and toys. A child who can say 'no' and have it respected is safer, not more difficult.

Early requests are usually for things the child loves right now: bubbles, pressing the lift button, a turn with Didi's phone, one more push on the swing in the society park. The analyst picks targets from what the child already reaches for, not from a standard word list.

The details vary with the child and the way they communicate, but a typical teaching moment follows a pattern. It happens during play or a routine, not as a test at a table, and it should feel like a game to the child.

1. Notice what the child wants right now, such as the bubble wand in your hand.
2. Pause, so the child has a reason and a moment to communicate.
3. If needed, help: say the word, show the sign, or guide a hand towards the picture. This help is called a prompt.
4. As soon as the child communicates, in any agreed form, hand the thing over straight away.
5. Repeat across the day with the same item, then with new items, people and places.
6. Reduce the help step by step until the child asks without it.

Some programmes set up small, playful reasons to ask, such as a favourite toy in a clear box the child can see but not open, or handing over a puzzle one piece at a time. That is very different from withholding something the child needs. No child should be kept from food, water, the toilet or comfort to create a 'need' to ask, and the adult helps quickly if frustration starts to build. If sessions regularly leave your child upset, tell the supervising analyst.

The analyst will usually accept an approximation at first, such as 'ba' for ball, and shape it over time, in step with the speech-language pathologist's advice on what your child's speech can do right now.

Once a child is asking reliably, programmes add naming, answering and listener skills. The aim is conversation: a child who can tell you something you did not know, ask a question back, or share a joke. That takes many small steps, and a good plan builds them in a natural order rather than drilling long lists of labels.

Be wary of goals that produce rote answers with nothing behind them. A child who has been drilled to say 'I am fine, thank you' to every greeting has learned a script, not a conversation. Scripts can be useful scaffolding, especially for children who think in chunks of language, but the plan should show how they will become flexible. If your child repeats lines from cartoons or adverts, mention it to the analyst and the speech-language pathologist; repeated speech can carry meaning, and they can help you work out what it is.

In a home that runs in English and Hindi, or English and Marathi, Tamil or Bengali, decide with the team which language each target is taught in. Ask the speech-language pathologist how to handle both languages for your child. What usually helps is agreeing which words each adult uses, so a target does not change every time a different person asks.

The verbal behaviour approach is one way to teach language. It does not replace speech and language therapy. A speech-language pathologist (SLP) assesses speech, language, understanding and social communication, and leads decisions about how a child communicates, including whether a picture system or a device would help. The behaviour analyst brings a way of teaching, of breaking skills into steps, and of measuring progress.

The two should share goals and agree some practical points: which words or symbols are being taught, which communication form the child uses, what counts as a good attempt, and which language to use when. If they disagree, ask them to talk to each other directly rather than passing messages through you. At the time of writing (October 2026), speech therapists are one of the professional categories the Rehabilitation Council of India recognises and behaviour analysts are not; confirm any professional's status with the body concerned.

• What is each of you working on this month, and how do the goals fit together?
• Which words, signs or symbols should everyone at home use?
• Has my child's main way of communicating been decided, and who reviews it?
• How will we know if the plan is asking too much and my child is getting frustrated?
• What should the school and the household help be doing the same way?

Questions like these work well at a joint meeting, even a short video call, once a term.

Some speech-language pathologists and developmental practitioners feel that a strict VB programme can treat language as a set of responses to be trained, and can underplay shared attention, connection and the pleasure of talking with someone you like. Autistic self-advocates have raised a wider concern about ABA: that programmes have aimed at compliance and at making children look less autistic, rather than at what the child needs. Both concerns deserve to be taken seriously.

Contemporary practice responds in a few ways: teaching communication before compliance, accepting every form of communication, teaching 'no' and 'stop' early, watching for the child's willingness to take part, and blending VB with play-based and developmental methods. A large 2023 review of autism intervention research (Project AIM) found some support for behavioural, developmental and naturalistic approaches, but the effects looked smaller when only the most rigorous measures were counted. No single method has earned the right to be the only one in your child's week.

In practice, judge the programme by your child. Are they communicating more, in ways that are useful to them, and are they mostly happy in sessions?

Special Minds provides ABA therapy in India, with every programme designed and supervised by a BCBA and delivered at home, at school with the school's agreement, online with parent coaching or at a centre. We do not provide speech therapy, so your child's speech-language pathologist leads on communication assessment and any AAC decisions, and the supervising analyst should work alongside them. See the ABA therapy in India hub, or online ABA with parent coaching if you want to learn the requesting routines yourself.