Establishing a generalized autoclitic repertoire in preschool children.

The authors taught preschoolers to add "I think it's a ___" when they named pictures. This kind of comment is called an autoclitic. It tells the listener the speaker is unsure.

They used the public-accompaniment method. The adult first said the full sentence out loud while the child looked at the picture. Later the child said the whole sentence alone. Kids practiced until they used the phrase with new pictures.

Every child started using "I think" comments with brand-new pictures. The skill spread without extra teaching. The phrase also popped up when they talked about toys and snacks.

The children kept the skill weeks later. Parents reported hearing "I think" at home and at the park.

Rojahn et al. (1987) showed that mixing mand trials into tact drills cuts teaching time. Howard et al. (1988) took the next step: after kids could tact, they added the autoclitic layer.

Lancioni et al. (2009) and Allan et al. (1994) later proved the same mand-first logic works for children with autism. They got tacts to emerge once mands were solid, just like the 1988 kids added "I think" once their tacts were strong.

Grannan et al. (2012) pushed further. They used match-to-sample plus tacts to create untaught intraverbals. All three lines show the same theme: build one verbal operant, then watch others appear.

You can teach uncertainty language fast. Pair the weak tact with a public model, then fade the model. The child gains a polite, flexible phrase that works anywhere. Try it next time you run tact programs.