Children diagnosed with autism exhibit deficits in communication that impact their ability to control their immediate environment. Recent research on mand training has been criticized for producing a limited number of mand topographies over a long span of time with limited generalization to novel environments. There is a body of research, however, that successfully establishes larger repertoires. Training parents as change agents may mediate generalization by teaching under naturally maintaining contingencies. Additional effects of parent training may reduce parent reports of stress, increase favorable quality of parent-child interactions, and increase reports of parental self-efficacy. The current study evaluated the effects of a generalized training framework to teach parents how to target generalized mands and expand their child’s communicative topographies. The effects of the training were evaluated using a non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants and skills. Results indicated that parents were able to effectively teach their child to mand for a variety of items and events and to substantially increase the number of different mand topographies and expand the topographies the child emitted. Parents were observed to have higher overall confidence and lower overall stress following intervention. The current study builds on previous research on generalized teaching strategies for parents that are effective in teaching a variety of responses to the child.

McGreevy, Fry, and Cornwall (2014) developed an assessment within the Essential for Living (EFL) manual for clinicians to identify which communication modality should be used for each individual. This assessment identifies an AAC based on the learner’s skills, level of problem behavior, similarities between AAC and vocal community, and size of the verbal community. However, to date, no research has evaluated if this assessment identifies the communication modality that will result in faster acquisition of mands in individuals with ASD. Thus, the purpose of this study was to compare acquisition of mands across a modality identified by the EFL communication modality assessment and two other commonly used modalities. A secondary purpose was to determine if participants acquire mands using the mode of AAC identified by EFL. Finally, a third purpose was to determine if the communication modality identified by EFL communication modality assessment matches the modality currently used by the individual. Findings showed that although all three participants acquired mands across the three communication modalities, mands in the modality of communication recommended by the EFL assessment were acquired faster only by 1 out of the 3 participants.

Mand training is a very logical and natural procedure to begin teaching communication skills to individuals with autism. Existing research has documented strategies for teaching children with autism to mand for preferred items, although there are fewer high quality studies on teaching children to mand for other people to perform an action. In addition to improving the general mand repertoire, teaching children to mand for others to perform an action is important because it allows children with autism to communicate ways in which another person could improve their environment by performing a simple action. The purpose of this study was to document a functional relation between mand training and acquisition and generalization of unprompted mands for another person to perform an action. Using a multiple-baseline design across participants, four children with autism were taught to mand for an adult to perform a variety of actions (e.g., to open a container so the child could obtain a preferred item). Results showed that the intervention produced an increase in unprompted mands for actions for all participants. Additionally, all participants demonstrated unprompted mands at or above mastery criteria during all generalization sessions in a different setting and different interventionist. The magnitude of effect was also large for all participants. This study extends the research on mand training by demonstrating a procedure that can be used to teach children with autism specific mands for actions. Additionally, this study will contribute to a body of strong and adequate studies that will eventually lead to mand training being considered an evidence-based practice.

A deficit currently exists in teacher preparation programs for teaching students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using evidence-based practices, specifically in the area of Applied Behavior Analysis. As communication deficits are a primary characteristic associated with the diagnosis of ASD teaching communication skills is a common educational goal for students with ASD, and this skill needs to be addressed in teacher education. Mand training is one evidence-based practice applied to teach independent requesting skills to students with ASD. In this study, four teachers serving students with characteristics of ASD in the classroom participated in a multiple-probe across-participants study evaluating the extent to which online training videos prepare teachers in mand training procedures for students with ASD. Concurrent with teacher participants, changes in rates of student mands were evaluated for four students receiving instruction in a multiple probe design. Data analysis consisted of visual analysis of graphically displayed results and calculation of effect sizes. Results indicate that the Online Training Videos (OTV) were not effective as a standalone intervention for preparation of teachers to teach mands, however three student participants showed improved student outcomes.

Deficits in communication are one of the major features among individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a difficulty that affects all aspects of language. The present study applied an intervention strategy previously applied by Somers et al. (2014) to teach children with ASD to mand for information about location by using the words “where” and “Which.” The study applied a multiple probes design across settings to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. The procedure was effective, and the participant acquired manding skills and was able to generalize these skills with novel items. / Applied Behavioral Analysis