Re: If child doesn't give correct response ,but is manding for a pr...

[Guest guest]

Larry,

NO.

The short answer is NO.

Now let me explain. There are actually several subquestions going on in the

relatively simple scenario you just presented.

First, the thousands of mands a day thing isn't going to " make " a child

" conversational. " The purpose of doing that many mand trials a day is to

pair socially mediated communication (language) with reinforcement. You're

teaching the child the power of speech. He talks, he gets. In other words,

he talks, he gets reinforced. That will increase the likelihood of success

when you work on the other functional categories of language. (tacts, ffc,

intraverbals)

Second, the procedure for correcting a child when he makes an incorrect mand

(an incorrect request for that primary reinforcer you're working with, would

look like this based on trials we still do with Grant on occasion with M & Ms.

Holding a green M & M, I ask: " What do you want? "

Grant: I want the red M & M " (An incorrect response...remember, the response

is tailored to your kid, for some it might just be asking for the color with

one word. " What do you want? Red " )

I immediately re-present. " What do you want? " and immediately provide the

full verbal prompt, " I want the green M & M. "

Grant: Echoes the prompt

Me: " What do you want? "

Grant: Independently says, " I want the green M & M. "

Now, if you're working on some other skill, like tacts or ffc and as part of

your procedure are making the child ask for their reinforcement when they

have satisfactorily completed a set of trials, the situation is a bit

different. If the child gets a tact wrong, for example labeling a cat as a

dog, you go through the procedure I outlined above only substituting " What is

it?, or " This is a? or This is called a? " for the " What do you want. " If the

child has historically always got " cat " correct, I'm probably going to throw

in three or four MORE Sds before reinforcing him so that he is differentially

reinforced to make independent rather than prompted responses on mastered

material.

Hope this helps.

Mark Cyr

Grant's dad.

" Children with autism are not learning disabled, they are teaching

challenges. " -Vince Carbone