By Matt Harrington, BCBA · Behaviorist Book Club · Research-backed answers for behavior analysts
These are deictic and temporal relational frames — ways of understanding stimuli in relation to shifting reference points in time and space. 'Then-later' involves tracking a temporal reference point to understand when something occurred or will occur relative to the speaker's current position in time. 'Here-there' involves tracking a spatial reference point to understand where something is located relative to the speaker. Children who have not acquired these frames struggle with a broad range of everyday communicative tasks — following directions involving relative spatial terms, understanding narrative accounts of past or future events, and participating in conversations that involve perspective-shifting.
A single-reversal probe tests whether a trained relational response can be reversed when the reference point shifts. For example, after training a child to correctly identify 'here' (near the trainer) and 'there' (far from the trainer), a single reversal tests whether the child can correctly respond when the trainer moves to a different position, making what was 'here' now 'there.' A correct response on the reversal indicates that the child has acquired the relational frame rather than simply a topographic association between a specific stimulus configuration and a specific response.
Transformation of stimulus function refers to the process by which training on one set of relational exemplars alters responding to novel stimuli that share the same relational structure. If a child is trained to respond to 'here/there' with one set of objects and locations, and then correctly responds to 'here/there' with novel objects and locations that were never directly trained, transformation has occurred. This is clinically significant because it means training does not need to cover every possible exemplar — a limited set of training experiences can produce generalized relational flexibility.
The key assessment strategy is systematic variation of the reference point. If a child always selects the stimulus near the trainer when hearing 'here,' regardless of which specific stimulus is near the trainer, that is consistent with relational responding. If the child always selects the same specific stimulus when hearing 'here,' regardless of its spatial position, that suggests topographic responding to a specific stimulus-response association rather than relational flexibility. Single-reversal probes are the primary tool for making this distinction. Non-reversal correct responding is necessary but not sufficient to conclude that a relational frame has been established.
Children need to have established basic listener, tact, and intraverbal repertoires before deictic frame training is likely to be productive. Specifically, they should be able to follow instructions involving spatial prepositions, tact objects and actions reliably, and respond to at least some intraverbal probes that require tracking conversational context. Children who are primarily at the echoic or early mand level have not yet developed the relational responding history that supports deictic frame training. Assessing where a child falls within a verbal behavior assessment framework — such as the VB-MAPP or ABLLS-R — helps determine whether relational training is appropriate and how to prioritize it.
RFT researchers propose that perspective-taking difficulties in autism may be partially explained by underdeveloped deictic relational repertoires. Deictic frames — I/you, here/there, now/then — require tracking the distinction between one's own perspective and another's. Theory of mind tasks, which require predicting what another person believes or will do, involve similar perspective-shifting operations. Research has found correlations between performance on deictic frame training tasks and performance on theory of mind assessments, suggesting that building deictic relational repertoires may support broader perspective-taking development.
Goals should specify the relational frame being targeted, the type of probe (single reversal, transformation test, or novel exemplar), and the criterion for mastery. For example: 'Given a deictic spatial array and an instruction containing 'here' or 'there,' the child will correctly identify the referent in both trained and reversal probe conditions across three consecutive sessions with three different exemplar sets.' The goal should distinguish between correct responding on trained configurations and correct responding on reversal and novel probes, since only the latter indicates genuine relational flexibility.
The training procedure requires a small set of objects or stimuli that can be placed in varying spatial configurations, a consistent method for establishing the reference point (typically the trainer's physical position), and a systematic probe sequence that includes both trained configurations and single-reversal tests. For temporal relations, stimuli representing events at different time points — pictures of activities labeled 'now' versus 'later,' or sequences of events — are commonly used. The materials themselves are not specialized; what distinguishes the procedure is the systematic variation of the reference point across training and probe trials.
Code 2.01 requires that treatment be based on scientific knowledge and evidence. The RFT-based training approach demonstrated by Barron and colleagues meets this standard: it is grounded in a coherent theoretical framework, tested using single-case experimental designs with clear baseline and intervention phases, and the results show both acquisition of trained relations and generalization to untrained exemplars. Practitioners implementing this approach can articulate the theoretical basis, the procedural components, and the evidence supporting its use — the three elements that constitute a scientifically grounded treatment recommendation.
The research base for RFT-based deictic training with children with autism, while growing, is still relatively small compared to the literature on other verbal behavior targets. Most studies involve small samples and single-case designs, which demonstrate functional relations but require replication across diverse participants before broad generalization claims are warranted. Practitioners should monitor their own clients' progress carefully and not assume that published training procedures will produce the same outcomes without modification. Additionally, the interaction between RFT-based training and concurrent verbal behavior programming has not been fully characterized — how to sequence and integrate these approaches most efficiently remains an open empirical question.
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All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.