An autoclitic is a type of verbal behavior that depends on, and modifies, other verbal behavior. B.F. Skinner introduced the concept in his 1957 book Verbal Behavior, classifying it as a “secondary” verbal operant because it doesn’t stand on its own. Instead, it attaches to a primary verbal response (like a mand or tact) and changes how the listener reacts to that response. If you’re studying ABA, the autoclitic is often the trickiest of Skinner’s six verbal operants to grasp, but it becomes intuitive once you see how it works in everyday speech.
How Autoclitics Work
Think of a primary verbal operant as the core message. Saying “rain” is a tact: you see or hear rain, and you label it. An autoclitic is the extra language you wrap around that core message to shape its effect on the listener. “I heard it is raining” tells the listener the source of your information. “I think it is raining” signals uncertainty. The word “rain” stays the same, but the autoclitic portion changes what the listener does with it. Someone who hears “I think it is raining” might glance out the window to check; someone who hears “I see it is raining” probably grabs an umbrella without a second thought.
This is the key idea: autoclitics don’t describe the world directly. They describe something about the speaker’s own verbal behavior, or they adjust the listener’s reaction to it. That secondary, modifier role is what makes them “auto” (self) + “clitic” (leaning on). They lean on another verbal operant to have any meaning at all.
Types of Autoclitics
Skinner outlined several categories. The two most commonly discussed in ABA coursework are descriptive and qualifying autoclitics, though quantifying and relational autoclitics also appear in practice.
Descriptive Autoclitics
A descriptive autoclitic tells the listener something about the speaker’s own behavior or how it was produced. Phrases like “I see,” “I remember,” “I heard,” or “I know” are descriptive autoclitics. When a child says “I see a dog,” the word “dog” is a tact, and “I see” is a descriptive autoclitic that specifies how the tact came about: through direct visual contact. This matters because it gives the listener information about the reliability or source of the statement. “I remember a dog” carries a different implication than “I see a dog,” even though the primary tact (“dog”) is the same.
Qualifying Autoclitics
A qualifying autoclitic adjusts the strength or likelihood of the primary response for the listener. Words and phrases like “maybe,” “definitely,” “I think,” “probably,” and “no” all function as qualifying autoclitics. Saying “It is definitely raining” strengthens the listener’s response compared to “It is maybe raining.” The qualifying autoclitic is primarily controlled by the speaker’s motivation to get the listener to respond in a particular way. If you want someone to bring an umbrella, you’re more likely to say “definitely” than “maybe.”
Quantifying Autoclitics
These specify amount or number: “some,” “all,” “a few,” “three.” Saying “some cookies are left” versus “all the cookies are left” changes the listener’s behavior dramatically, even though “cookies are left” is the same base response.
Relational Autoclitics
Relational autoclitics express the relationship between words or concepts in a sentence, often through grammar and syntax. Prepositions like “on,” “under,” “above,” and “below” function as relational autoclitics when they frame how objects relate to one another. Word order itself can act as a relational autoclitic: “The dog bit the man” means something entirely different from “The man bit the dog,” even though the same words appear.
Autoclitic Mands vs. Autoclitic Tacts
Just as primary verbal operants can be mands or tacts, autoclitics themselves can function in these roles. An autoclitic mand modifies the speaker’s own primary verbal behavior and is controlled by a motivating operation. It essentially commands the listener to do something specific with the primary response. “Please hand me the blue cup” contains “please” as an autoclitic mand, directing the listener to act.
An autoclitic tact, on the other hand, modifies the speaker’s primary verbal behavior based on some nonverbal aspect of the main response. Saying “I feel like it might rain” involves an autoclitic tact: the speaker is describing something about their own uncertain state in relation to the tact “rain.” The distinction can feel subtle, but the controlling variable is different. Autoclitic mands are driven by what the speaker wants the listener to do. Autoclitic tacts are driven by something the speaker observes about their own behavior or its context.
Why Autoclitics Matter in ABA
Autoclitics are what make language precise enough to be genuinely functional. A child who can only tact “cookie” has limited communicative power. A child who can say “I want two big cookies, please” is using autoclitics (qualifying, quantifying, descriptive) to shape the listener’s response far more effectively. The listener now knows the child wants something (mand), knows the quantity (two), the quality (big), and the social framing (please). Each of those added elements is autoclitic behavior layered on top of the primary operant.
In Skinner’s six-factor verbal behavior model, the autoclitic sits alongside mands, tacts, echoics, intraverbals, and textuals. It’s the operant that ties complex language together. Without autoclitics, speech would be a string of isolated labels and requests with no grammar, no hedging, no specificity, and no way to signal how confident you are in what you’re saying.
How Autoclitics Are Assessed
The VB-MAPP (Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program) is one of the most widely used tools for tracking verbal behavior development in children receiving ABA services. It measures 170 learning and language milestones across three developmental levels corresponding roughly to 0 to 18 months, 18 to 30 months, and 30 to 48 months. While the VB-MAPP tracks domains like mands, tacts, echoics, and intraverbals with dedicated milestone sections, autoclitic behavior is assessed through the linguistic structure domain. This domain looks at whether a child is combining words, using grammatical markers, adding adjectives, and building sentences that go beyond single operants.
A child who says “red car” when looking at a red car is demonstrating an early autoclitic frame: “red” modifies the tact “car.” A child who later says “I see two red cars on the table” is layering multiple autoclitics (descriptive, quantifying, relational) on top of a single tact. Clinicians track this progression to determine where a child’s verbal behavior falls developmentally and what to target next.
Teaching Autoclitic Frames
One effective method for teaching autoclitics is multiple exemplar instruction, or MEI. The core idea is to rotate across many different stimuli and response types within a single teaching session so the learner abstracts the autoclitic frame rather than memorizing a single response. In a study published in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, researchers taught spatial autoclitic frames (on, under, above, below, left, right) using unfamiliar symbols so children couldn’t rely on prior knowledge. The teacher rotated across four spatial frames and five symbols, alternating between listener responses (“Put the heth above the qōph”) and speaker responses (“Where is beth?”) across 40 trials per session.
For listener responses, the child placed the symbol in the correct location. For speaker responses, the child stated the location aloud using the correct spatial frame. Correct responses received immediate confirmation (“That’s right, beth is under he”). Errors were followed by a model of the correct response, an opportunity to try again, and then the next trial. Sessions continued until the child reached 90% accuracy across two consecutive sessions. The rotation across response types and frames is what makes MEI powerful: it prevents rote memorization and builds a flexible autoclitic repertoire the child can apply to new situations.
In practice, teaching autoclitics often begins with simple frames like “I want [item]” or “I see [item]” and gradually moves to more complex constructions. The prerequisite skills typically include a solid mand and tact repertoire, because autoclitics by definition depend on primary verbal operants already being in place. A child who cannot yet tact “ball” is not ready to produce “I see two big balls under the chair.”