Private Events in ABA: Teaching Kids to Name Feelings

Private events are things that happen inside a person. They include thoughts, feelings, and body sensations like a racing heart. Only the person having them can feel them directly.

This idea matters for anyone teaching communication. BCBAs, RBTs, teachers, and parents want learners to name what they feel inside. When a child can label fear or discomfort, they can ask for help. That skill supports safety, self-advocacy, and emotional health.

Private events are still behavior#

Some people assume feelings sit outside behavior science. Radical behaviorism disagrees. Carolyn explains that private events follow the same rules as public behavior.

From a radical behaviorist perspective, private events are not outside the science of behavior. They are covert behaviors subject to the same environmental influences as our overt behavior. From the talk. Carolyn

So a private event is just covert behavior. It is shaped by the environment, even though no one else can see it. This view lets us study and teach around feelings, not ignore them.

Why private events are hard to reach#

The core problem is access. We cannot observe another person's inner state directly. Carolyn names the exact things we miss.

We cannot directly observe a child's heart rate increasing, their stomach tightening, their breathing changing, or that internal sense of discomfort or threat. From the talk. Carolyn

So how do we work with something we cannot see? We watch the signs that show up alongside it. Carolyn explains that behavior analysts rely on public accompaniments. These are the observable responses that tend to occur alongside the internal changes.

A bandage may accompany "hurt." A tight fist may accompany anger. These visible cues give us a way to teach labels for hidden states. We cannot reach the feeling directly, but we can teach the label the feeling travels with.

Giving children language for the unnamed#

Many children feel something is wrong before they have words for it. That gap can leave them unable to ask for help. Carolyn Broner treats these early signals as private events. She notes that behavioral precursor responses may reflect private events the child cannot yet put into words.

The fix is to hand children usable language. Emotional safety words like "something feels different" give them a starting place. Broner frames this as the whole point of that language.

emotional safety language gives children more than rules. It gives them language for what they are experiencing. In other words, private events. From the talk. Carolyn Broner

This lets a child surface a feeling before it has a clear name. They can flag unease early, which supports safety. That is the practical job of emotional safety language. It gives a child a way to name an experience that does not yet have a clear word.

Tacting private events for self-advocacy#

A tact is a label for something a person notices. Tacting a private event means naming an inner state, like "I feel sick." This repertoire is a key tool for self-advocacy. Mark Malady calls it vital.

the man-tacked repertoire is vital to teach the person to be able to advocate for their own accommodations. From the talk. Mark Malady, BCBA

The good news is that this skill can come early. It does not need complex language, and it works in any modality. A learner can use words, signs, or a device.

the man-tacked repertoire is required. It can be very early learner repertoire. So you don't need very complex man-tacked repertoires here, and it can be in any medium. From the talk. Mark Malady, BCBA

So you do not wait for advanced speech to start. A simple sign for "hurt" can protect a learner today. Teaching these labels early gives learners a voice for their own needs.

Turning private events into safety skills#

Naming a feeling is only the first step. The bigger goal is to act on it. A learner who notices unease can then ask for a break or help. That link between feeling and action is where safety lives.

This is why teams pair emotional labels with a plan. First the learner spots the inner signal. Then they use language to flag it. Then a trusted adult responds and helps. Each part builds on the private event the learner learned to notice.

Consistency across people makes this stick. Parents, teachers, and therapists should use the same words. When the whole team responds the same way, the learner trusts the skill. That trust is what turns a label into real self-advocacy.

The experts here share one core idea. Carolyn treats private events as covert behavior we reach through public signs. Broner uses simple safety language to give feelings a name. Malady frames naming those feelings as an early tool for self-advocacy. Each angle points to the same goal, which is giving learners a voice for their inner world.

What the research says#

Research shows children with autism can learn to tact private events. One study used a most-to-least prompting procedure with three children. They learned to label the private events of others through public cues, like a bandage meaning hurt (Belisle et al., 2019).

Teaching can also start with the learner's own body. In one study, children learned to tact sensations across body parts using objects like a hairbrush. They generalized to novel objects, though novel sensations were harder (Rajagopal et al., 2021). Video-based relational training has taught similar skills for identifying the private events of others in context (Schmick et al., 2018).

Newer work aims to sharpen the whole concept. One approach adds a neurobiological layer, treating inner stimuli as private events that enter functional relations with behavior (Meindl & Ivy, 2023).

FAQ#

What are private events in ABA?

Private events are behaviors or stimuli inside a person that only they can sense. They include thoughts, feelings, and body sensations. Radical behaviorism treats them as covert behavior shaped by the environment.

How do you teach a child to tact private events?

You often teach through public accompaniments, the visible signs that come with a feeling. A bandage can stand for hurt, or a smile for happy. You prompt the label and reinforce correct responses over time.

Why does tacting private events matter?

It lets a learner name inner states like pain, fear, or discomfort. That naming is the base of self-advocacy. A child who can say "I feel sick" can ask for the help they need.

This skill supports emotional safety in relationships, a focus of It's Complicated: Teaching Relationship Safety That Reflects Real Life. It also drives early self-advocacy, as covered in genArete: To Teach or not to Teach!.