Association for Behavior Analysis International

Establishing an appropriate mand repertoire is an important first step during interventions for individuals with challenging behavior, complex communication needs, or both. Although mands are the most frequently studied verbal operant from the functional taxonomy proposed by B.F. Skinner (Sautter & LeBlanc, 2006), much is still unknown about the instructional circumstances that are critical to their acquisition and maintenance. The first talk describes research that compared the efficiency with which practitioners might bring established mands under discriminative control (via multiple schedules) while maintaining low levels of problem behavior using arbitrary or naturalistic stimuli. The second talk in this symposium describes a study which evaluated the probability of mand acquisition during a modified functional communication training (FCT) program in which instruction was only provided when functional reinforcers were abolished. The third talk describes the antecedents and consequences necessary to bring mands for "when" under appropriate environmental control and highlights a training protocol that incorporated these variables into an effective intervention for three participants. The final talk describes research which evaluates the effectiveness of a training protocol designed to teach care providers to implement discrimination training with high fidelity. The symposium ends with a discussion that synthesizes emergent themes.

Master's and doctoral-level practitioners and researchers

Following FCT, it is common to thin the schedule of reinforcement through a multiple schedule in which components are signaled via "arranged," or arbitrary, SDs. For example, colored cards are often used to signal SD and S-delta periods. A few published studies have also reported the use of "naturalistic," or socially valid SDs, including caregivers talking on the phone ("busy") and caregivers reading ("not busy") (Kuhn, Chirighin, & Zelenka, 2010; Leon, Hausman, Kahng, & Becraft, 2010; Shamlian et al., 2016). Even fewer have reported comparisons between the types of schedule-thinning stimuli (cf. Shamlian et al., 2016). The current study replicates and extends the schedule-thinning literature by comparing rates of mand differentiation and problem behavior during schedule thinning following FCT with arranged and naturalistic SDs with a child with autism. The current study will also replicate procedures used by Betz, Fisher, Roane, Mintz, and Owen (2013) by evaluating the extent to which arranged and naturalistic SDs facilitate rapid schedule thinning (i.e., increasing the duration of S-delta periods without gradual thinning).

Children with autism spectrum disorders struggle with many verbal operants, including mands, and especially mands for information, as the relevant consequence is not an immediate tangible stimulus. The purpose of this study was to extend the work of Shillingsburg et al. (2011), Somers et al. (2014), and Landa et al. (2017) by teaching three children with autism spectrum disorder to mand, "when?" under appropriate antecedent and consequence control. In other words, the current study sought to teach children to request information in appropriate and relevant contexts. Trials were alternated between previously mastered mands for information, AO (item), AO (information), and EO conditions across 5 unavailability statements, 17 items, multiple instructors, and multiple settings. All three participants learned to mand, "when?" under appropriate antecedent control and demonstrated generalization with novel instructors and in natural situations. Other mands for information (i.e., "where?") were maintained. Recommendations for future research on manding for information will be discussed.