Evaluation of a Vocal Mand Assessment and Vocal Mand Training Procedures: A Systematic Replication

Numerous mand training procedures have proven effective in developing mand repertoires in children with developmental disabilities, but selection of treatments is usually arbitrary. Bourret et al. (2004) created and tested a vocal mand assessment to systematically determine an effective mand training procedure, thereby reducing the likelihood of implementing ineffective treatments. However, because a comparison between treatments was not completed, the validity of the assessment requires further investigation. This study sought to replicate and extend the findings of Bourret et al. (2004) by including a comparison between two treatments. Study 1 consisted of a replication of the vocal mand assessment and Study 2 consisted of a comparison of two vocal mand procedures, one suggested from the assessment (shaping) and one arbitrarily selected procedure from the original study (prompting and reinforcement). The participant emitted mands more reliably when the mand training procedure suggested by the assessment (Study 1) was implemented, compared to the randomly selected treatment

An Evaluation of Mand and Tact Assessment Procedures

There are many empirically validated interventions to establish vocal mands and tacts for children (e.g., Miguel, Carr, & Michael, 2002; Wallace, Iwata, & Hanley, 2006); however, the method for determining the most appropriate intervention for each individual is unclear. An assessment is one way to identify an effective intervention for a given individual. The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend Bourret, Vollmer, & Rapp (2004) who evaluated an assessment to inform effective mand interventions for three boys with vocal mand deficits. In the first study, we replicated the full mand assessment as described by Bourret et al. and compared the full assessment to a brief mand assessment with similar procedures. Results showed that the full mand assessment and the brief mand assessment identified similar patterns of responding for all three participants. In addition, there was increased efficiency of the brief mand assessment when compared to the full mand assessment. In the second study, we extended the brief assessment from the mand to the tact to evaluate the identification of training strategies for the tact. Results of the brief tact assessment identified similar patterns of responding to the brief mand assessment for two of the three participants and a dissimilar outcome for one participant, suggesting that vocal verbal deficits may differ across verbal operants

Evaluation of Treatment Integrity Errors on Mand Acquisition

Manding (requesting) is a vital component of successful language development and allows children to access reinforcers in their environment. When training mands, caregivers may not implement the training program as designed ( treatment integrity failures ). The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of incorrect-item delivery (Experiment 1) and response-independent item delivery (Experiment 2) across four levels of treatment integrity (0%, 40%, 70%, and 100%) on mand acquisition. A total of six children (three in each experiment), who communicated vocally using full sentences and engaged in some independent manding participated in the study. During Experiment 1, two of the three participants acquired the mand fastest during 100% integrity. Delivery of the incorrect item was detrimental to mand acquisition, but the effects were idiosyncratic across the two participants. The third participant did not acquire any mands. During Experiment 2, all three participants acquired the mand fastest during the 100% integrity condition. All participants acquired the mand trained with 70% integrity. None of the participants acquired the mands trained with 40% and 0% integrity, suggesting that delivery of the item independent of responding was detrimental to acquisition. For mand training to be most effective, caregivers must implement mand training with high levels of integrity

Generalization of Negatively Reinforced Mands in Children with Developmental Disabilities

Everyone, including children with developmental disabilities, encounters stimuli they find aversive every day (e.g., the sound of a classmate tapping their pencil). These aversive stimuli may not be problematic for typically developing individuals, because they learn to behave in ways that allow them to escape or avoid this aversive stimulation. They could, for example, mand (i.e., request) for something to be changed in the environment (e.g., ask their classmates to stop tapping their pencils). A child with developmental disabilities, however, may not have the communication skills necessary to request the termination of aversive stimuli, which may result in frequent exposure to aversive situations. For these children, it may be useful to acquire a general mand (e.g., saying, No, thank you ) which could be used to avoid or terminate a variety of aversive stimuli. Previous researchers teaching mands for negative reinforcement have focused on replacing problem behavior maintained by escape from task demands. The current study extended the literature on teaching mands for negative reinforcement by teaching children with developmental disabilities to mand for escape from a variety of nonpreferred stimuli, while assessing generalization to untrained stimuli and settings. Participants were two school-aged boys with autism who engaged in problem behavior when they encountered nonpreferred stimuli, and did not use an appropriate mand for negative reinforcement. First, we employed a non-preferred stimulus assessment to identify stimuli for subsequent use in mand training. Next, we conducted mand training sequentially across nonpreferred stimuli until sufficient exemplars were trained for generalization to untrained stimuli to occur. Finally, we conducted probes to assess generalization of the mand response to nontraining contexts outside of the experimental setting. For both participants, training was required across two stimuli before cross-stimulus generalization was observed. Because generalization did not bring the mand to criterion levels with the third stimulus, for either participant, training was introduced to facilitate acquisition. The mand response was acquired with a fourth stimulus in the absence of training. Through the inclusion of appropriate control conditions, we showed that the stimulus control of the mand response was appropriate, occurring almost exclusively in the presence of nonpreferred stimuli. In addition, we showed decreases in problem behavior, for both participants, which corresponded to acquisition of the mand response. We also provided evidence of generalization to nontraining contexts. We discuss limitations of the current study and present suggestions for future research

The Effects of Script-Fading Procedures and Extinction Procedures on the Variability of Mand Frames Used by Young Children with Autism

A primary deficit seen in many children with autism, particularly those with limited verbal repertoires, is repetitive and rote verbal behavior. This type of repetitive or rote verbal behavior can be stigmatizing and may severely limit access to primary reinforcers. Therefore, it may be beneficial to attempt to increase response variability in verbal behavior demonstrated by children with autism. Previous researchers have focused their efforts on examining response variability in motor behavior or existing verbal behavior, rather than new or recently taught verbal behavior. A potentially complementary intervention for teaching new verbal interactions is the use of scripts and script fading procedures. However, the effect of scripts and script fading procedures on the response variability of verbal behavior remains unknown. Thus, the present study attempted to answer several research questions. First, we examined the effects on extinction on response variability of mand frames used by young children with autism that exhibit limited manding repertoires. Second, we examined the effects of script training on the variability of mand frames, and finally, the effects of extinction after teaching a variety of mand frames with children with autism. Results demonstrated that (a) extinction prior to any teaching was not successful in increasing response variability, (b) teaching multiple mand frames in a successive pattern did not increase response variability of mand frames for any of the participants, (c) extinction after teaching additional mand frames increased response variability for two of the three participants, and (d) a multiple script presentation intervention increased response variability of mand frames for one participant

The Effects of Simultaneous Script-Training and Fading Procedures on the Mand Variability of Children with Autism

Individuals with autism often display rote and repetitive responding across behavioral topographies. One area that is often affected is the individual’s verbal repertoire. In an attempt to build and expand verbal repertoires, script and script fading procedures have often been implemented to teach individuals new and varied verbal behavior. Script training and fading procedures have also been used specifically to remediate deficits in an individual’s mand repertoire. Researchers have examined the effects of script training and fading procedures on the variability within an individual’s mand repertoire. This line of research is of great importance since a lack of variability in mands can limit an individual’s access to desired and/or needed items as well as social interactions. In the present study, we implemented simultaneous script training and fading procedures to increase the variability of mands used by three preschool-aged children (one male and two females) diagnosed with autism. We implemented these procedures in an attempt to promote mand variability using antecedent only procedures and to teach variability explicitly in our script training and fading preparation. It was also our goal to address some of the limitations that arose in the previously conducted mand variability studies, namely, the suppression of the default mand frame. At the conclusion of the study, and following procedural modifications, all three participants demonstrated an increase in variability of mand frames. This increase was observed following the inclusion of extinction procedures and following low levels of variability while using antecedent-only procedures. Participants in this study demonstrated an average of one mand frame following antecedent-only procedures and this increased to an average of three mand frames following the inclusion of extinction procedures. The combination of the antecedent procedures and extinction further increased variability across participants. The need for the extinction condition led to many limitations in this study including the limitations analyzed in the simultaneous script training and fading procedures

Tervishoiu rahastamise ja tervishoiupoliitika suunad

Riigi üks tähtsamaid prioriteete on tagada oma kodanike tervishoid. Samas on tervishoid riigi tegevuse selline valdkond, mida sageli ei märgata, kui see toimib, aga keegi ei taha omal nahal tunda, kui see ei toimi. Eesti Arst 2004; 83(10): 692-69

The Effects of Question-Present Versus Item Present Conditions on Acquisition of Mands

A mand, often referred to as a request in lay terms, is a verbal operant that is under the control of an establishing operation and maintained by a specific reinforcer. Children with autism spectrum disorder often have difficulty learning mands and need supplemental training to learn this skill. The purpose of the present study was to extend the study by Bowen, Shillingsburg, and Carr (2012) and compare two mand training procedures to determine if a question-only or item-present condition would result in more rapid acquisition of mands. A multiple baseline design across participants, with an embedded alternating treatment design, was used to evaluate mand acquisition in two preschool children with autism. Results of the study showed that the item-present condition resulted in more rapid acquisition of mands than the question-only condition