Abstract
A modified multiple-baseline design across participants was used to evaluate a procedure for teaching the mand “Where?” to 3 children with autism. The participants were 3 and 5 years old and were participating in an intensive applied behavior analysis program. The participants were able to mand for items they wanted when the items were not in sight but were unable to ask where an item was located. The procedure consisted of a preference assessment for play activities, contrived conditioned motivating operations (CMO’s), prompting the children to mand “Where,” and consequences for correct and incorrect responding. Each contrived CMO consisted of an opportunity for the child to mand “Where” while playing with a selected activity, prompting the child to mand, and reinforcing a correct response by answering the question “Where.” Two of the participants learned to mand “Where” after training with 1 CMO and the mand generalized to novel contrived situations, activities, and the natural environment and was maintained over time (up to 4-weeks), whereas one participant required training with a second CMO before generalization occurred.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision (DSM-IV-TR), pp. 70–84). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Betz, A. M., Higbee, T. S., & Pollard, J. S. (2010). Promoting generalization of mands for information used by young children with autism. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 4, 501–508.
Endicott, K., & Higbee, T. S. (2007). Contriving motivating operations to evoke mands for information in preschoolers with autism. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 1, 210–217.
Laraway, S., Snycerski, S., Michael, J., & Poling, A. (2003). Motivating operations and terms to describe them: Some further refinements. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 36, 407–414.
Lechago, S. A., Carr, J. E., Grow, L. L., Love, J. R., & Almason, S. M. (2010). Mands for information generalize across establishing operations. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 43, 381–395.
Marion, C., Martin, G. L., Yu, C. T., & Buhler, C. (2011). Teaching children with autism spectrum disorder to mand “What is it?”. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 5, 1584–1597.
Martin, G. L., & Pear, J. J. (2011). Behavior modification: What it is and how to do it (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Roy-Wsiaki, G., Marion, C., Martin, G. L., & Yu, C. T. (2010). Teaching a child with autism to request information by asking “What?”. Developmental Disabilities Bulletin, 38, 55–74.
Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Sundberg, M. L., Loeb, M., Hale, L., & Eigenheer, P. (2002). Contriving establishing operations to teach mands for information. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 18, 15–29.
Sundberg, M. L., & Michael, J. (2001). The benefits of Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior for children with autism. Behavior Modification, 25, 698–724.
Zimmerman, I. L., Steiner, V. G., & Pond, R. E. (2002). Preschool language scale (4th ed.). Texas: The Psychological Corporation.
Acknowledgments
This project was conducted through the University of Manitoba and St.Amant Research Centre. A special thanks to the families and children who participated in the study and to the St.Amant ABA program for their help in participant recruitment. We also thank research assistants, Ashley Boris, Amanda Claeys, and Sandra Salem.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
For further information about the project, please contact Garry L. Martin or C. T. Yu.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Marion, C., Martin, G.L., Yu, C.T. et al. Teaching Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder to Mand “Where?”. J Behav Educ 21, 273–294 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10864-012-9148-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10864-012-9148-y