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Increasing the Mand Repertoire of Children With Autism Through the Use of an Interrupted Chain Procedure

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Abstract

Mand training is an essential component of verbal behavior training for any individual who lacks this skill. The current study replicates and extends, with some procedural differences, the work of Hall and Sundberg (1987) by using an interrupted chain procedure to teach mands for missing items to children with autism. The participants were 3 children with autism, ranging between 5 and 8 years of age, who would regularly mand for a wide variety of reinforcers when they were present but would rarely mand for items that were not in sight (i.e., missing items). Participants were first taught to complete 3 behavior chains. Subsequently, the chains were interrupted by removing 1 item needed to complete each chain to contrive motivating operations (MOs) as a means of teaching mands for missing items. Following mand training incorporating vocal prompt and prompt fading procedures, all participants emitted unprompted mands for the missing items within the context of the trained chains and within the context of novel, untrained chains. After teaching mands for missing items, probes were conducted to test for untrained tact acquisition. All participants also demonstrated tact responses relative to the missing items as a result of the mand training.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carbone Clinic, 614 Corporate Way, Suite 1, Valley Cottage, Rockland, NY, 10989, USA

    Kristin M. Albert, Vincent J. Carbone, Danielle D. Murray, Margaret Hagerty & Emily J. Sweeney-Kerwin

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  1. Kristin M. Albert
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  2. Vincent J. Carbone
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  3. Danielle D. Murray
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  4. Margaret Hagerty
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  5. Emily J. Sweeney-Kerwin
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Correspondence to Kristin M. Albert.

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We would like to thank the parents of the participants who took part in this study.

Danielle D. Murray now works as a consultant in private practice.

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Albert, K.M., Carbone, V.J., Murray, D.D. et al. Increasing the Mand Repertoire of Children With Autism Through the Use of an Interrupted Chain Procedure. Behav Analysis Practice 5, 65–76 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391825

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