Expanding Intraverbals and Feature Function Class: A Guide for Parents and Professionals
Intraverbals are essential for language development, helping children with autism or speech delays improve conversational abilities and abstract language skills.
Expanding intraverbals starts with strong foundations, including echoics, manding, and tacting before progressing to complex verbal responses.
Feature, function, and class (FFC) questions help children make connections between words and meanings, improving flexible language use.
Using real-life objects, pictures, and interactive play enhances learning and generalization of language skills in daily life.
As a behavior analyst and autism mom, one of the most common questions I receive is how to expand intraverbals, feature function class, and language skills for children with autism or speech delays. Intraverbals are necessary when trying to go from single words to phrases. If you’ve been working on language development and feel like your child is getting stuck, this blog will provide you with actionable steps to help your child progress.
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Intraverbals are verbal responses that do not have a direct visual or environmental cue. They involve answering questions, engaging in back-and-forth conversation, and responding to verbal prompts. For example, if someone asks, “What’s your name?” and a child responds with their name, that’s an intraverbal response. This skill is essential for communication, social interaction, and language development. Teaching intraverbals helps children with autism and speech delays build conversational abilities and understand abstract language concepts.
Understanding Intraverbals and Why They Matter
Intraverbals are a crucial part of language development. They involve answering questions, engaging in conversation, and providing verbal responses without the presence of visual prompts. This skill is essential for holding meaningful conversations and understanding complex language structures.
When my son Lucas was young, I struggled with expanding his intraverbals. I remember attending a workshop by Dr. Vincent Carbone and asking, “Don’t you think intermediate learners just get stuck?” His response was clear: children don’t get stuck if we focus on the right prerequisites. Over time, I’ve developed effective strategies to expand language skills while ensuring that progress is steady and meaningful.
Intraverbal Assessment
The Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP), developed by Dr. Mark Sundberg, includes an intraverbal subtest designed to assess a child’s ability to respond to verbal questions without visual prompts. This subtest helps identify gaps in language development and provides a structured approach to expanding a child’s conversational abilities. It categorizes intraverbals into different difficulty levels, allowing parents and professionals to tailor their teaching strategies accordingly. You can access the VB-MAPP intraverbal subtest for free at AVBPress.
The first step to tackling and understanding a childs intraverbal ability is to complete the intraverbal assessment, but remember, we don’t want to program directly from the assessment!
Example of the VB MAPP Intraverbal Subtest. Completing the assessment is your first step to unlocking more language.
Steps to Expand Intraverbals
1. Mastering Groups One and Two of the Intraverbal Subtest
Before jumping into more complex language, it’s essential to ensure that your child has mastered the foundational intraverbals. According to Dr. Mark Sundberg’s Intraverbal Subtest, the first two groups focus on:
Group 1: Simple fill-in-the-blank responses such as “A dog says __” or “Twinkle, twinkle little __”.
Group 2: Personal information questions like “What’s your name?” or “You brush your ___”.
Intraverbal Subtest by Dr. Mark Sundberg Group 2 Questions.
If your child is solid in these groups, it’s time to move forward. If not, continue reinforcing these foundational skills through structured and natural teaching opportunities. I teach you how to teach these early intraverbal skills in my online courses.
2. Expanding Language Through Songs and Fill-ins
Songs and rhymes are fantastic tools for language expansion. Instead of stopping at the last word of a song, encourage your child to complete full phrases or sentences.
For example:
You say: “Twinkle, twinkle, little…”
Your child answers: “Star.”
You continue: “How I wonder what you…”
Your child answers: “Are.”
Gradually increase the number of words your child fills in, reinforcing their confidence and language fluency. When doing this make sure you sing the same songs in the same order so that there is repetition. If singing “old mcdonald”, ensure you sing the animals on the farm in the same order each time.
3. Teaching Through Pictures and Real-life Objects
Children with autism often struggle with abstract thinking. Using pictures or real-life objects to teach intraverbals can help bridge the gap and prevent rote responding.
For example:
When teaching “What do you eat?”, have pictures of different foods available so your child can point and say the name, or if they are still non verbal they can just touch the picture.
When teaching “What’s in the kitchen?”, use real kitchen items to reinforce understanding.
Start with tangible objects and move toward verbal-only responses as your child gains confidence. If we just ask questions and give kids the vocal answer without an object or picture, we are not teaching the topic using real world comprehension.
4. Building on Categories and Subcategories
A great next step in expanding language is teaching categories and subcategories. Once your child is comfortable answering “What are some animals?”, expand their responses by introducing subcategories:
“What are some farm animals?”
“What are some zoo animals?”
“What are some pets?”
Sorting activities can also be helpful. Have your child categorize different items into groups like colors, animals, or food. This will enhance their ability to answer more complex intraverbals. I have a full unit and protocol for building categories within my online courses for kids of all ages who are not yet conversational.
5. Using Fluency Training to Strengthen Responses
Fluency training helps ensure that your child doesn’t lose mastered language skills. A simple way to practice fluency is by presenting a series of pictures and asking your child to name them quickly.
Mom’s turn: “Dog, cat, pig, horse.”
Child’s turn: “Dog, cat, pig, horse.”
The goal is to build speed and confidence while reinforcing existing vocabulary. When kids can quickly label an item or answer a question, they are more likely to use these terms in real world situations.
6. Introducing Feature, Function, and Class (FFC) Questions
Feature Function Class (FFC) questions help children develop deeper understanding and flexible language use. Start simple and increase complexity gradually.
Feature: “What has fur?” (dog, cat, bear)
Function: “What do you use to cut paper?” (scissors)
Class: “What are some fruits?” (apple, banana, grapes)
By practicing FFC questions, you’re helping your child build connections between words and their meanings.
Building categories has been the key to improving language and eventually conversational skills for many in my online course and community. Take a free workshop to learn how they used categories to build language.
7. Generalizing Language Skills in Daily Life
The best way to ensure language development is to integrate it into everyday activities. Use natural environment teaching by incorporating intraverbal practice into daily routines:
During mealtime: “What do you want to drink?”
During playtime: “What toy do you want?”
During bedtime: “Where do you sleep?”
Repetition in meaningful contexts will help solidify learning and make language more functional, but remember, try to only ask questions that you have been working on at the table or know they will likely answer correctly. We don’t want to reinforce errors.
Wrapping Up on Teaching Intraverbals
Expanding intraverbals and language skills takes time, patience, and strategic teaching. We want to avoid rote responding so ensure you are teaching at the right level.
If your child is stuck, remember that progress comes from strengthening the right prerequisites and using engaging teaching methods.
By focusing on songs, pictures, categories, fluency, and natural language opportunities, you can help your child take the next step in their language development.
If you want to learn more about my step-by-step methods, I invite you to check out my courses or attend a free workshop where I dive deeper into these strategies. Remember, no child is truly “stuck” – with the right approach, we can always move forward.
The best strategies include using songs, fill-in-the-blank exercises, and structured teaching to encourage verbal responses. Gradually increasing the complexity of questions and incorporating visual aids can also help expand language skills.
Encourage expanded responses by modeling complete sentences and using prompting techniques. For example, instead of accepting “banana” as an answer to “What do you eat?”, encourage “I eat a banana.”
Many children struggle with FFC questions because they require abstract thinking. To help, use real objects and pictures to demonstrate features (e.g., “This is round” for a ball), functions (e.g., “You drink from a cup”), and categories (e.g., “Fruits include apples, bananas, and grapes”).
Yes, visual supports can be helpful, especially in the beginning. Using pictures and real-life objects provides context, which can make it easier for children to learn and generalize verbal responses.
If your child consistently responds correctly to simple intraverbal questions (e.g., “What does a dog say?”), you can start introducing more complex questions, such as “What animals live on a farm?” or “What do you eat for breakfast?” Look for fluency and generalization before moving to the next level.
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