Mand acquisition across different teaching methodologies

Abstract

Many children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder lack functional independent communication. The current study used a combined multiple-baseline and alternating-treatments design to evaluate whether the presence or absence of a verbal prompt (asking a question) during teaching affected independent verbal manding. Two teaching procedures were used to teach specific responses (two per teaching condition) and evaluate if the acquired response, once trained, occurred independently (in the absence of stimuli or supplemental prompts). One student learned more rapidly under the mand training condition whereas the other learned at a similar rate under both conditions. The assessment methodology presented may be beneficial in future practice to determine if one teaching procedure is more effective than the other for a learner.