Introduction-Therapist

[Guest guest]

I haven't seen many introductions by therapists, but thought I would say

hello. I am a grad student in communication disorders and have worked as a

therapist for about 2 years. I began in a DTT program and then started with

NET in April. I have worked with children ranging from 2.5 to 7 who have a

range of abilities.

The questions about response time and manding have been interesting. I think

the age and tolerance level of the child determines the pace at which you

work. With one child we get at least 20 responses a minute and can sustain

this for several minutes (granted we aren't dealing with other behaviors).

With another child the response time is a little slower but reinforcement is

delivered much more frequently. This child is not yet 3 and is may not be

capable of working for several minutes at that pace. I will add though that

I feel that we tend to underestimate this because of his age. Part of the

reason we can accomplish so much is that there is very little social

reinforcement within a sitting. Rather than telling them what a good job

they are doing, we show them by allowing them access to more meaningful

reinforcement. In a session, the child comes to the table and mands, does

2-3 blocks of responses each followed by a mand accessed at the table, and

then we spend 10-15 minutes on the floor manding (they think we're playing).

With the younger child I work with we use a clicker to record how many mands

we do. In a three hour session we usually average around 300-350. If you

have two sessions a day, that only leaves 300-400 to be accomplished in the

rest of the day. Once you get thinking in a certain way, getting the child

to ask for EVERYTHING becomes second nature. If other therapists are having

trouble figuring this stuff out, feel free to write.

Steph

[Guest guest]

Hi, I am a therapist also. I have a question when you are teaching mands, if

the

child already says " I want (mand) " is that how I would prompt it, or would I

teach other responses also. We have had trouble in the past with the child not

knowing what to say under different establishing operations. For example, if

she

wanted a drink one time she might say " I want drink " and the next time she would

say " It's a drink " . We are just now getting this under control, but I am

hesitant to begin other questions (i.e., Can I have a drink?) What do you all

think?

Thanks,

Carmen

SMcafee12@... wrote:

> From: SMcafee12@...

>

> I haven't seen many introductions by therapists, but thought I would say

> hello. I am a grad student in communication disorders and have worked as a

> therapist for about 2 years. I began in a DTT program and then started with

> NET in April. I have worked with children ranging from 2.5 to 7 who have a

> range of abilities.

>

> The questions about response time and manding have been interesting. I think

> the age and tolerance level of the child determines the pace at which you

> work. With one child we get at least 20 responses a minute and can sustain

> this for several minutes (granted we aren't dealing with other behaviors).

> With another child the response time is a little slower but reinforcement is

> delivered much more frequently. This child is not yet 3 and is may not be

> capable of working for several minutes at that pace. I will add though that

> I feel that we tend to underestimate this because of his age. Part of the

> reason we can accomplish so much is that there is very little social

> reinforcement within a sitting. Rather than telling them what a good job

> they are doing, we show them by allowing them access to more meaningful

> reinforcement. In a session, the child comes to the table and mands, does

> 2-3 blocks of responses each followed by a mand accessed at the table, and

> then we spend 10-15 minutes on the floor manding (they think we're playing).

> With the younger child I work with we use a clicker to record how many mands

> we do. In a three hour session we usually average around 300-350. If you

> have two sessions a day, that only leaves 300-400 to be accomplished in the

> rest of the day. Once you get thinking in a certain way, getting the child

> to ask for EVERYTHING becomes second nature. If other therapists are having

> trouble figuring this stuff out, feel free to write.

>

> Steph

>

> >