it's all in the tact....part one

Those of you who know me will know that I am very passionate about the operant of language which is called the 'tact'. An operant is different from the term 'operant', as in 'operant conditioning'. I won't be writing about the latter, but if you search through our website http://www.networkinterventions.com/ you will be able to find some good stuff. What I am talking about, an operant of language, is a classification system that one of my heroes, B.F.Skinner came up with. He operationalised (broke down and labelled) our language and he broke it down not by what it looks like (topograhy), but by what it means (function). Again, I won't go in to the various operants - you can take a look at our website if you would like some more info. What I would like to talk about is the important of the tact.

So what is a tact, I hear you cry! A tact is, very simply, a label. This component of our language is so very important, and there are many people who are missing their tacting skills from their tacting repertoire. It can be the reason for the child with autism who has no language, the adult with asperger's who is wonderfully high functioning but not able to fully converse or initiate conversations, or the typically developing adult who suffers from anxiety. It can also be the reason behind the typically developing adult's inability to keep a lid on his anger.

More about the tact tomorrow.....