Teaching caregivers to implement mand training using speech generating devices

Individuals with developmental disabilities often do not develop vocal repertoires, thus requiring the use of augmentative devices. Teaching caregivers to conduct communication training with their children may be one way to foster communication with their device in the natural environment. This study replicates Rosales, Stone and Rehfeldt (2009), but using an augmentative device. Behavioral skills training was used to teach caregivers to implement mand training procedures. Caregivers quickly learned to implement mand training with their children and independent mands increased from pretraining to posttraining observations for 2 out of 3 children.     

Establishing derived requesting skills in adults with severe developmental disabilities

This project examined whether a history of reinforced relational responding would result in derived requesting skills in 3 adults with disabilities. Participants were first taught to request preferred items using pictures; they were then taught conditional discriminations between pictures and their dictated names and between dictated names and their corresponding text. Finally, requests for preferred items using corresponding text were evaluated. All 3 participants demonstrated derived requesting skills.     

Comparing mand training and other instructional methods to teach a foreign language

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of mand, tact, and native‐to‐foreign (NFI) and foreign‐to‐native (FNI) intraverbal training on the acquisition of a foreign language. We used a multiple‐baseline design across participants with an embedded adapted alternating treatments design to compare the effects of mand training, tact training, NFI training, and FNI training on the acquisition rate of Chinese words in four typically developing adults. We also examined the emergence of untrained foreign language responses for each training condition. Data for 3 out of the 4 participants suggest that mand training was the most efficient training procedure with respect to acquisition rate. The greatest amount of emergent responding was observed for the mand and tact training conditions.     

Parent-implemented mand training: acquisition of framed manding in a young boy with partial hemispherectomy

This study examined the effects of parent-implemented mand training on the acquisition of framed manding in a 4-year-old boy who had undergone partial hemispherectomy. Framed manding became the predominant mand form when and only when the intervention was implemented with each preferred toy, but minimal generalization to untrained toys nevertheless occurred. A pure mand test suggested that manding was controlled by the relevant motivating operation.     

Further investigation of increasing vocalizations of children with autism with a speech-generating device

We replicated and extended the findings of Gervarter et al. (2016) by using prompting and reinforcement to produce increased vocal speech with 3 young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who used a speech generating device (SGD). We extended Gervarter et al. by adopting a more robust experimental design, conducting session-by-session preference assessments, and measuring the emergence of novel vocalizations. The frequency of vocalizations increased for all 3 participants after the introduction of an echoic prompt. These results suggest that SGD-based interventions may lead to increased vocal output for children with ASD.     

Assessment of mand selection for functional communication training packages

We evaluated the effects of training novel and existing mands during functional communication training (FCT) to decrease problem behavior for 2 children. A functional analysis (Phase 1) identified mands for FCT. Phase 2 used distinct stimulus conditions to train novel and existing mands. Phase 3 evaluated allocation of responding within a concurrent-schedules design. When reinforcement for either mand was concurrently available, the children used existing mands more than novel mands, but higher levels of problem behavior occurred with existing mands.     

Effects of mand-tact versus tact-only training on the acquisition of tacts

We sought to replicate and extend Carroll and Hesse's (1987) study of the acquisition of tacts by including participants with and without developmental disabilities. As in Carroll and Hesse, the present results showed that mand-tact training, rather than tact-only training, led to more rapid acquisition of tacts. Tacting on follow-up tests did not differ. In addition, our results show that mand-tact training established both verbal operants involved about as rapidly as tact-only training established only one verbal operant. DESCRIPTORS: verbal behavior, tact acquisition, mand-tact training, tact-only training, follow-up