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Abstract: The article defines the concept “basic skills of verbal behavior” and characterizes the general parameters of these skills. The concept is analyzed not only from the point of view of traditional approaches to the study of developmental disorders, but also form the standpoint of psycholinguistic and behavioral approaches. Theoretic aspects of development of these skills in ontogenesis are provided, several Russian and foreign research works on the problem of verbal behavior are studied. To analyze basic skills of verbal behavior of autists the method of direct non-participant cross observation was used. The experiment involved both toddlers with autism and their typically developing peers. The article provides the results of the observation of the functioning of the basic skills of verbal behavior of 16 autists and 60 neurotypical children aged 2.2 – 3.8. It also describes the features of these skills in autists. Worthy of note is that in the experiment there were some autists that have siblings and thus they acquired some basic skills of verbal behavior though of a modified nature. The results of the observation prove the assumption that children with autism spectrum disorders lack the skills of verbal behavior on the early stage of development, which later hinders the development of the simple verbal operants.