Below is a general skill sequence for helping learners label common functions and actions.
As learners label common items and their features, its important that they also learn to conceptualize what those items do. This skill area seeks to teach learners how to label the corresponding functions and actions of the common items that were targeted in past programs. Therapists and teachers should take great care to point these items out in the natural environment. As learners understand what these items do, we can begin to teach common categories and classes of items as well.
How this skill area relates to your assessments!
This skill area aligns with various assessments and their respective domains, with milestone and domain codes provided for reference. Additionally, DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for Autism are included to help clinicians identify how this skill area potentially supports medical necessity in relation to the diagnosis.
VB-MAPP (Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program)
Tact, T 8-M, Tacts 10 ongoing actions
Listener Responding By Function, Feature, and Class, LRFFC 6-M, Selects 5 different foods or drinks when each is presented in an array of 5 (along with 4 non-food or non-drink items) and asked the verbal fill-ins…You eat…and You drink…
Listener Responding By Function, Feature, and Class, LRFFC 7-M, Selects the correct item from an array of 8, for 25 different LRFFC fill-in statements of any type (e.g., You sit on a …)
Linguistic Structure, LS 6-M, The child’s articulation of 10 tacts can be understood
by familiar adults who cannot see the item tacted.
AFLS (Assessment of Functional Living Skills)
Basic Communication, BC9, Labels common objects
Basic Communication, BC11, Labels common actions observed in home, school, or community setting
DSM-V Diagnostic Criteria for Autism
A1, Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.
CDC’s Developmental Milestones
3 years, Language/Communication Milestones, Says what action is happening in a picture or book when asked, like “running,” “eating,” or “playing”
Treatment Plan Goal Ideas
This is a list of treatment plan goals. These are different from the goals you will find in the skill sequence below. Your treatment plan goals encompass any number of goals from the skill sequence. Sometime they will include multiple goals from the sequence (”Learner will label 5 toys”) and sometimes the treatment plan goal will be simply consist of a really important goal from the skill sequence (”Will label caregiver”). An analogy I like to use goes as follows: Each skill sequence goal (commonly known as a “target”) represent each stair in a flight of stairs. The treatment plan goal is the flight itself.
Treatment plan goal ideas for this particular skill area are as follows:
Learner will correctly label 15 common FFC functions or actions when presented to them in 2D or 3D.
Learner will correctly label 25 common FFC functions or actions when presented to them in 2D or 3D.
Learner will correctly label 40 common FFC functions or actions when presented to them in 2D or 3D.
Component Skills
Your learner may need to be fluent in these component skills first before introducing this goal/skill area. Component skills for this skill sequence may include skill areas that are fundamental to other areas. Fluency in the skill areas listed below may increase the likelihood that your learner will succeed in this skill sequence and those afterward.
Below is a possible skill sequence for working on increasing your learner’s ability to label common actions. Note that every learner is different and that you likely will need to tweak and vary some programming to their needs. Click the triangle icon to view the full description for each skill in the sequence/area.
Hold up a picture of a dog barking, a bear biting, a cat climbing, a bear growling, or a shark swimming.
Ask the learner “What is happening?/What is it doing?”
Learner should correctly label the corresponding picture.
Reinforce accordingly.
Additional Notes
Make sure to be working on multiple tacting/labeling goals at once to ensure that the learner doesn’t develop a rote/memorized response that generalizes across all future pictures.
As the learner gains the ability to engage in multiple trials at once, have a stack of multiple pictures and cycle through them in a “flashcard” like process. This will increase trial rates, prevent rote memorization, and could expedite mastery and fluency.
Materials
Pictures of a dog barking, a bear biting, a cat climbing, a bear growling, and a shark swimming.
#2 Labels Sitting (on log), Snapping (turtle), Mooing, Milking, and Digging
How to Run
Gain the attention and motivation of the learner.
Hold up a picture of a person sitting on a log, a snapping turtle, a cow mooing, a cow being milked, or digging in the dirt.
Ask the learner “What is happening?/What is it doing?”
Learner should correctly label the corresponding picture.
Reinforce accordingly.
Additional Notes
Make sure to be working on multiple tacting/labeling goals at once to ensure that the learner doesn’t develop a rote/memorized response that generalizes across all future pictures.
As the learner gains the ability to engage in multiple trials at once, have a stack of multiple pictures and cycle through them in a “flashcard” like process. This will increase trial rates, prevent rote memorization, and could expedite mastery and fluency.
Materials
Pictures of a person sitting on a log, a snapping turtle, a cow mooing, a cow being milked, and digging in the dirt.
#3 Labels Watching TV, Typing, Calling, Texting, and Printing
How to Run
Gain the attention and motivation of the learner.
Hold up a picture of people watching TV, someone typing, calling on the phone, texting on the phone, or printing paper.
Ask the learner “What is happening?/What is it doing?”
Learner should correctly label the corresponding picture.
Reinforce accordingly.
Additional Notes
Make sure to be working on multiple tacting/labeling goals at once to ensure that the learner doesn’t develop a rote/memorized response that generalizes across all future pictures.
As the learner gains the ability to engage in multiple trials at once, have a stack of multiple pictures and cycle through them in a “flashcard” like process. This will increase trial rates, prevent rote memorization, and could expedite mastery and fluency.
Materials
Pictures of a people watching TV, someone typing, calling on the phone, texting on the phone, and printing paper.
#4 Labels Chewing, Making Music, Pulling Wagon, and Riding (motorcycle or bike)
How to Run
Gain the attention and motivation of the learner.
Hold up a picture of a mouth chewing, making music, pulling a wagon, or riding a motorcycle or bike.
Ask the learner “What is happening?/What is it doing?”
Learner should correctly label the corresponding picture.
Reinforce accordingly.
Additional Notes
Make sure to be working on multiple tacting/labeling goals at once to ensure that the learner doesn’t develop a rote/memorized response that generalizes across all future pictures.
As the learner gains the ability to engage in multiple trials at once, have a stack of multiple pictures and cycle through them in a “flashcard” like process. This will increase trial rates, prevent rote memorization, and could expedite mastery and fluency.
Materials
Pictures of a mouth chewing, making music, pulling a wagon, and riding a motorcycle or bike.
#5 Labels Rolling (ball), Pushing (toy train), Driving (Hot Wheels), and Building (blocks)
How to Run
Gain the attention and motivation of the learner.
Hold up a picture of a ball rolling, pushing a toy, driving a toy car, or building with blocks.
Ask the learner “What is happening?/What is it doing?”
Learner should correctly label the corresponding picture.
Reinforce accordingly.
Additional Notes
Make sure to be working on multiple tacting/labeling goals at once to ensure that the learner doesn’t develop a rote/memorized response that generalizes across all future pictures.
As the learner gains the ability to engage in multiple trials at once, have a stack of multiple pictures and cycle through them in a “flashcard” like process. This will increase trial rates, prevent rote memorization, and could expedite mastery and fluency.
Materials
Pictures of a ball rolling, pushing a toy, driving a toy car, and building with blocks.
Hold up a picture of flying a plane, a boat floating, flushing a toilet, or washing hands.
Ask the learner “What is happening?/What is it doing?”
Learner should correctly label the corresponding picture.
Reinforce accordingly.
Additional Notes
Make sure to be working on multiple tacting/labeling goals at once to ensure that the learner doesn’t develop a rote/memorized response that generalizes across all future pictures.
As the learner gains the ability to engage in multiple trials at once, have a stack of multiple pictures and cycle through them in a “flashcard” like process. This will increase trial rates, prevent rote memorization, and could expedite mastery and fluency.
Materials
Pictures of flying a plane, a boat floating, flushing a toilet, or washing hands.
Hold up a picture of brushing teeth, bathing, or someone drinking.
Ask the learner “What is happening?/What is it doing?”
Learner should correctly label the corresponding picture.
Reinforce accordingly.
Additional Notes
Make sure to be working on multiple tacting/labeling goals at once to ensure that the learner doesn’t develop a rote/memorized response that generalizes across all future pictures.
As the learner gains the ability to engage in multiple trials at once, have a stack of multiple pictures and cycle through them in a “flashcard” like process. This will increase trial rates, prevent rote memorization, and could expedite mastery and fluency.
Materials
Pictures of brushing teeth, bathing, or someone drinking.
#8 Labels Heating (something in a microwave), Cooling (something in a refrigerator), Cooking (something in oven or on stove), and Toasting (something in toaster)
How to Run
Gain the attention and motivation of the learner.
Hold up a picture of something heating in a microwave, something cooling in the refrigerator, cooking on the stove, or toasting in the toaster.
Ask the learner “What is happening?/What is it doing?”
Learner should correctly label the corresponding picture.
Reinforce accordingly.
Additional Notes
Make sure to be working on multiple tacting/labeling goals at once to ensure that the learner doesn’t develop a rote/memorized response that generalizes across all future pictures.
As the learner gains the ability to engage in multiple trials at once, have a stack of multiple pictures and cycle through them in a “flashcard” like process. This will increase trial rates, prevent rote memorization, and could expedite mastery and fluency.
Materials
Pictures of something heating in a microwave, something cooling in the refrigerator, cooking on the stove, or toasting in the toaster.
Working on these skills at the same time could help with goal mastery. Maybe your learner has mastered these skills already. Perhaps they are already listed as component skills above. That’s okay! Targeting other learning channels might help your learner.
These are the possible next steps for learners who have mastered, or are mastering, the skills listed above. Note that new skill areas may require fluency in other component skills not listed above. Also, you can introduce composite skill sequences prematurely to keep your learner progressing, as generativity may occur earlier than expected.
Follow the link below to better understand component-composite analysis.
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Research and Resources
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Disclaimer
Consistent with ethical obligations outlined by the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB), users acknowledge that goal selection/direction is the responsibility of the BCBA. Users understand that goals should be tailored to the learner while ultimately involving the input of clients/stakeholders. Users understand their ethical obligations to the client/stakeholder concerning the selection, implementation, design, and minimization of risk regarding behavior change interventions as outlined in BACB Code. As such, this skill sequence serves as a general framework for generating ideas around this particular skill area and not as an assessment or curriculum.
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Intro to Scanning 
Intro to Matching (Visual Perception) 
Following Gestures
Matches Common Items in 2D Array 1.0 (Identical)
Receptively IDs Common Items in 2D Array
Labels Common Items 1.0
FFC-Labels Common Features 
Labels Common Actions 1.0
Labels with Noun-Verb Combos 1.0
FFC-Labels Common Classes in 2D Array