Episode #236: Strategies for Verbal Imitation

Welcome to Part 3 of my mini-series answering your burning questions! Today, we’re diving into the topic of verbal imitation.

When it comes to verbal imitation and echoic goals, context is everything. These goals must be functional and meaningful to the individual child in order to support communication development.

As an SLP collaborating with a BCBA, and vice versa, rely on assessment tools and an SLP’s robust training in speech to identify and shape functional goals. It’s crucial that we plan and program with intention—otherwise, we risk discouraging a child from verbalizing

The key? Collaborate early and often. Assess together. Plan together. Use resources like the Autism IEP Goal Bank (don’t miss the freebie!). Then, have the SLP on the team focus on those targeted words and move into collaboratively supporting generalization into the natural environment for a robust bank of words.

Looking ahead to 2026, we’re excited to explore communication disorders more deeply over at ABA Speech Connection. Stay tuned—because sometimes, you don’t know what you don’t know.