This text-based course is a transcript of the webinar, “The Power of Manding: How to Get Your Students Communicating - Part 2,” presented by Rosemarie Griffin, M.A., CCC-SLP, BCBA.
>> Rosemarie Griffin: Today we are going to review about some of the key points from the Part I seminar and then we will watch a video example of a manding session with a student, so you can see how it looks. Then we are going to review some case studies to show some exercises that may help you troubleshoot if you are starting manding sessions or if you have been doing them for a while, some things that may arise and how to solve those problems.
We will discuss how to assess the student’s manding level which is an area that I have had quite a bit of experience doing and do on a weekly basis with my students. We use the VB-MAPP, which is an assessment that looks at a student’s language level when it is a student who is not going to perform on well on a standardized measure. We will not talk about that measure in general, but we will focus on how you can use it to assess the student’s manding level to get an idea of where to start with the student.
Finally, we will discuss strategies to use with intermediate and advanced students. These will be students who are already requesting things that are in the room, requesting items, and may be requesting actions. It is those students who we are going to start to work on requesting – requesting with peers and requesting for information throughout their day. We are going to talk about some ways to specifically target those skills.
Manding
As a review from last time, manding is another term for requesting. It is one of the verbal operants. We talked about the different verbal operants that B.F. Skinner had addressed in his book, Verbal Behavior. This time we are going to focus on manding. Manding is another term for requesting. It is typically the first repertoire learned by all children. My infant daughter cries. That is her way to request. My older daughter, who is three, her language is typical and she is talking all the time and requesting. That is how it all starts for our children.
It is the only verbal behavior that immediately benefits the speaker. Children learn that they say something and they get it. Last time we talked about the example ‘cookie.’ The student says “cookie” and they get the cookie. They are going to learn that their communication is really powerful. If they have things present that they want (i.e. “I talk about them and I get them”) then that is going to work for them.
Research shows that an increase in manding often leads to a decrease in problem behavior. I saw this with a student I work with in a school. Last year, he was working on manding. He did not have a lot of mands or anything of that nature, so he had really impaired manding and a lot of problem behavior. This year there has been a whole classroom systematic change. He has been paired with an assistant who is working on manding and working on pairing; which is building rapport. She has really pushed and worked on manding all day throughout the natural environment and I have seen an increase in his manding and a decrease in his problem behavior. I have seen that research come to life.
