MAND TRAINING:

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MAND TRAINING

• Instructional Control and
• Natural Environment Teaching
• Adapted from Carbone

Rosa C. Martinez, Ph.D., BCBA 2007
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• DEFINITIONS
• Instructional Control
• Natural Environment Teaching
• Verbal Behavior
• Echoic
• Mand
• Motivation Operations

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Create a Positive Environment GENERAL
INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH Inductive type of
reasoning Interact using the principles of
behavior and decide from there what to do next.
What is the childs history of reinforcement?
Goal- teach the child to tolerate
instruction Instead of extinction and heavy
physical prompting Examine environment and make
it a better place to be. Reflexive MOs
(Motivating Operations) so the child wants to be
there!
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Skinner Box reflexive motivation worsening
set of circumstances i.e., - the tone prior to
the electric shock Instructors become Reflexive
MOs- the tone coming on suggesting that a
painful stimulation is about to occur.
Demands are a reflexive MO - Your mere presence
is like the tone and the demand is like the
electric shock! You should reduce the value of
escape rather than use physical force to try and
engage the child. Find an off-setting reinforcer
to motivate the child ( i.e., - video). Pair
yourself with good things! The Point You DO
NOT want to be a Reflexive MO!
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• Sound Inventory
• It is often helpful to have someone record all
  sounds emitted by the child, to develop
  successful future programming.
• Use of Picture symbols or sign language
• If child has good echoics it is not necessary to
  use an augmentative communication system.
• If using an augmentative system to pair with mand
  training, use whichever system is best for the
  individual child. Remember that using picture
  symbols requires many more skills and effort than
  actually signing.

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Using Prompts It is NOT necessary to use a
mastery criterion when moving from 1 prompt
tactic to the next (i.e., - Use a 0 sec time
delay and move to a lesser intrusive prompt on
the very next trial. Using Multiple Operants DO
NOT use a special voice (i.e. sing songy
voice) when presenting antecedents. For example
Do this touch nose stressing certain
syllables or sounds, etc. You may want to limit
the length of your statements but they should be
normalized speech. It is important to mix
verbal operants. Use multiple operants. Not
only all mands or only all tacts, etc. There is
nothing wrong with saying Give me the
cheetoh.Avoid using give cheetoh or even just
give me. Name the item- MAND IT!
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• Multiple controls
• Refers to varying the antecedents so that the
  child learns to respond within a variety of
  contexts. For example if you were teaching dog
  you would use many different types of dog
  pictures). This teaches the child to respond to
  auditory stimuli under multiple control.
• Using Intraverbals
• An intraverbal has many levels. At this early
  stage it is okay to use the following level
  
• Fill-in words from songs
• Fill-in blanks for fun activities
• Say animal sounds

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VB TACTICS RESPONSE EFFORT (must be factored
in) How much effort from the child is required
for the desired response? And is the
reinforcement worth it? When using pictures the
child is required to scan for correct pic, select
correct picture, remove pic, deliver picture,
echo picture name - That is a lot of work and
the child may NOT have all these skills! Early
on you WANT the correct response! (use errorless
learning)
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• Overall approach to improve speech production
• Increase opportunities to engage
• in movements necessary.
• Provide as many opportunities to engage
• in the desired behavior/response
• as possible!

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FOR MANDS DO NOT use just 1 PICTURE This is
NOT making a choice, all the child learns is to
pick up a picture, it doesnt matter what the
picture is. You need to have a conditional
discrimination. You can use 2 pictures and
PROMPT the correct response. When the child
selects the incorrect picture, DO NOT give him
the selected item (when you know it was the wrong
choice!) Base your decisions on what appears to
be the childs motivation.
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DO NOT run ECHOIC training w/ a child who cannot
echo Need MANDS! First words and
communication should be useful (not labels
labels are not useful) ECHOIC Training
LABELING Should NOT be first. MAND first! Sound
production must be reinforcing to the speaker
(i.e.,- good to hear my own voice) The child will
learn that speaking/using his voice results in
getting ____ (the reinforcer, the manded item,
what he wants, good times, etc) and thereby
result in an increase of vocalization.
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NO AVERSIVES VB should never be trained under
conditions of duress- If done aversively the
situation becomes correlated w/punishment instead
of SR (reinforcement). You should introduce
more than 1 item when training MANDS (otherwise
every request becomes that 1 item. Teach
across domains simultaneously, reinforce, make it
easy, use natural occurring contexts, teach
multiple topographies for everything (i.e., -DO
NOT teach more it will become the default
mand)
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AVOID teaching YES and/or head nod as 1st
mand This is only effective as a response to
the speaker and limits mand repertoire (requires
question to be asked) blocks spontaneity. YES
should NOT be taught until spontaneous manding,
with large mand repertoire occurs. Do NOT teach
point repertoire (requires presence of item)
and it is just as easy to teach the sign for
item. DO NOT teach bathroom if the child is
not yet under control of his behavior no MO
(motivation operation) is present
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DO NOT USE Sign, Say, Point to This sequence
is no longer recommended. For example sign
train, point to train, say train not
recommended!
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Use Differential Reinforcement by pairing the
stimuli For example you say train sign
language) or Child Choo-choo and pulling
movement of whistle, etc. Start wherever your
child needs you to. (video sample - Each time
the child did this the trainer modeled sign
w/vocalization train, prompted the response and
also reinforced it. After 20-25 trials the child
switched responses. Choo-choo was extinguished
and train w/sign emerged.
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Correlate sounds w/reinforcer the acoustic
stimulus acts as a reinforcer (stimulus-stimulus
pairing) Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing aka in
speech field as auditory bombardment (i.e., -
stimulus sign language) say sound plus
SR use sounds heard in vocal play (video
sample nonvocal 18 mos old w/ some vowel sounds
took 500 trials before 1st production of word)
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Once speech sounds are produced you now have the
necessary building blocks- When using SIGN
LANGUAGE If the child mands using sign use
time delay (withhold the item manded) and you may
get a vocal response even if it is an
approximation (childs best attempt at the
word) However only use this tactic w/well
established mastered signs signs the child
consistently uses appropriately!) Use a time
delay and a prompting procedure (echoic prompt),
and deliver the reinforcer (manded item) anyway
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DATA I recommend teaching/reinforcing the
manding behaviors within the natural environment
as you play with your child. However each
morning you may want to actually have a
sit-down where you do a cold probe so that
you can keep data (much more efficient use of
your time as opposed to trial by trial data).
Continue to use errorless training as your
procedure even during the cold probe data
sessions. Remember to heavily reinforce! Cold
probe simply present each item to be manded and
record your childs response. This will aid you
to keep track of what signs and /or vocalizations
your child is learning and masters. You can run
other programs during this time by interspersing
trial instruction across other areas of easy
task items or mastered items that are easy for
the child with the new target items. This
provides more opportunities for success thus
increased reinforcement opportunities as well.
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EYE CONTACT I DO NOT recommend running eye
contact programs (eye contact will eventually
develop from running other programs or it can be
shaped later after instructional control and
mand behavior is gained. Requiring eye-contact
can displace the response effort) it is not
necessary! Eye contact may develop as a side
effect of MAND training MAND training
establishes person (instructor) as a conditioned
reinforcer If eye contact is not developed after
mands are mastered, put on extinction by NOT
delivering the item when the child mands, and may
result in student looking at you and repeating
MAND DELIVER ITEM.
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SOCIALIZATION (initiation based on Skinners
analysis) The MAND repertoire is at the heart
of social skills. You must recognize the
controlling variables for social interaction. It
is a pre-requisite to condition the receiver of
social commentary to provide the response
(social) otherwise all you get is some form of
socialization but not function! (video sample
A child wanting to be pushed and pulled
sideways on a swing by 2 adults learned to say
bumpie TO THEM! His vocalization needed to be
reciprocated by the 2 people present to pull the
swing in each direction. Those 2 people have
become conditioned reinforcers. The child called
the instructors and they came that IS the
reinforced social interaction NOT Oh, good
calling my name! ) The reinforcer needs to be
the reaction of the other person, otherwise
social programs being taught are actually
script fading procedures or imitations. (need
to have reciprocity of engagement! Teaching to
ask questions is just imitation of meaningful
behavior and NOT teaching to really communicate.
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INCLUSION PRE-REQUISITE Must develop
Community of partners for the child (video
sample) Child was included 1hour in a regular ed
setting. The teacher taught sign to every
student/peer in the class specific to activities
of the morning routine (hour) Kyle was the leader
of the signed activities. His peers would
approach him to ask i.e., - How do you sign
red, Whats the sign for play, etc. Typical
peers actually enjoy learning and using
sign This is an example of real inclusion not
sitting in a class with a trainer and no
reciprocal communication with peers!
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TANTRUM BEHAVIORS SIB Are usually
inappropriate mand repertoires, with a
communication function that the child has learned
will result in making his environment better,
getting what he wants, or getting out of what
he doesnt want! Regardless of other hypothesis
(i.e. diet, sensory, exorcism prism glasses-
quackery-not corrective lenses!) Under tantrum
circumstances DO NOT provide any SR
(reinforcement) DO NOT DO THIS Would you
like___, or ____? DO NOT DO THIS" Come with me.
We are going to have fun. DO THIS Ignore
(regard safety) and continue immediately when
tantrum behavior stops engage and reinforce!
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• EXTINCTION
• Important NOT to pair the inappropriate tantrum
  behavior with SR (reinforcement)
• DO NOT pick up and carry
• DO block access to reinforcer items (try to
  remove them)
• DO ALLOW problem behavior to occur (regard
  safety)
• Problem behavior must be allowed to occur in
  order to be able to extinguish it. The child will
  learn the consequences of the inappropriate
  behavior (ignored-no reinforcing value) and
  contact extinction.

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THE END!
Good luck and happy learning!