When it comes to teaching our learners, focusing solely on manding for specific items is a missed opportunity. Manding is undeniably a crucial operant, especially for early learners. The initial urge is often to teach a basic mand like "iPad" and leave it at that. But, in doing so, we tend to oversimplify the language-learning process, turning it into a mere exchange of a word for a desired item. We need to understand the broader potential of manding. Functional Communication Training is great. But it seems that we become so focused on the role it plays in decreasing problem behavior, that we forget about accentuating the learner’s language development overall. It's not just about averting problematic behaviors by teaching learners to ask for what they want. Manding has a deeper purpose: it's an avenue for enriching vocabulary, broadening concepts, and overall enhancing language proficiency. Unfortunately, we often overlook this immense potential.
So what am I getting at, here? It's about immersing learners in the intricate details of their environment and their preferences. Take, for instance, our personal favorites like ice cream or pizza. It's not just about liking these foods in a general sense. Our preferences are nuanced - we have favorite flavors, particular places where we love to eat, and specific toppings that make the dish perfect. These details, these contexts, are what make our experiences richer. And having the language to mand for those contexts (No! I don’t like pineapple on my pizza) makes life infinitely better.
By merely teaching a learner to mand for an item, we miss the chance to dive deeper into the context surrounding their preferences. Encouraging learners to explore and articulate the specific features, flavors, or locations that amplify their enjoyment with a particular reinforcer can exponentially develop their language. So today I wanted to talk a bit about how we can teach the language for preferred context, giving our learners the tools to truly express themselves.
I’ll start with a couple preferred items: iPad and Mr. Potato Head.
Let’s say your learner can mand for the iPad fluently, teach the next layer of mands.
Manding for the room that the iPad is usually in. “Go to playroom!”.
Manding to remove any barriers when transitioning to play with the iPad. “Open door please” or “Can I get through?/Excuse me”.
Manding for a person/to a person (by name) that usually has possession of the iPad. “Go see Amber.”
Manding to gain access if locked. “Passcode”/“Unlock”.
Manding for specific game or app .“Youtube” or “Subway Surfer”.
Manding for specific video, new video. “Watch Bluey?”
Manding for someone to push play, rewind. “Press play” or “Turn it on”
Manding to play/watch alone/with another person watching. “By myself”
Or, let's say you have a learner that can fluently mand for Mr. Potato Head. Teaching the next layer of mands might involve your targeting these areas.
Manding for the location of the toy. “Go to playroom”
Manding for the person that has the item. “Find Kara!”
Manding to the person to get their attention. “Kara, look.”
Manding for where they want to play with the toy. “Play on floor” OR “Play on table”.
Manding for certain body parts.
Manding to play by themself, with others.
These are two very simple examples and they come with a few nuances. First, don’t introduce too many manding trials at once–so much so that it kills your learner’s motivation for the preferred item or activity. There’s an increase in response effort for the learner here and we need to be sensitive to that. Second, this also means that you’ll want to make sure your learner is highly motivated for the item or activity at hand. Increasing the response effort for items or activities that are moderately valued will also decrease their motivation. Third, check out www.bxmastery.com where there are a more comprehensive and sequenced list of manding ideas and opportunities.
The biggest take away here is that we should constantly be looking for ways to expand a learners language while remaining sensitive to what motivates them. And, there are ways to easily do it. Sometimes it means prompting a learner to mand to put their shoes or coat on before they go outside. Or, sometimes it means prompting them to request their a bowl and spoon prior to eating ice cream. Either way, in nearly every instance, there’s a way give the learner more language that immediately serves a purpose.
What do you think?