prompt dependency with Mands

[Guest guest]

Hi All!!

Hayley's teachers are having trouble getting her to spontaneously mand. Their

numbers show that 60% to 90% are prompted. Last year she consistently manded

spontaneously 60% of the time with new mands being introduced accounting for the

40% prompted. This year, there are very few new mands being taught so her

spontaneous number should be higher. At home she spontaneously mands 90% or

more. The school reports that they are using the same mand procedure that we

use at home.

Possible explanations:

1) she really doesn't want the things the teacher is having her mand for

2) she had become dependent on a prompt that the school is unaware they are

providing (that we don't do at home) and she waits for it before she responds at

school.

Things we thought of to try:

1) If she doesn't mand for the item within three seconds, put it away or at

least out of reach, instead of prompting her and giving her the item. If she

really wants it she'll try to mand for it. But if we do this it could greatly

reduce the number of mands per day.

2) If she doesn't mand for an item within three seconds, prompt response and

then fade prompts differently. But how?

Everything else is going very well, she is moving very quickly through learning

new tacts and receptive id's in Intensive Teaching. We are ready to introduce

FFC's. I am afraid of moving along too fast in other areas before we get the

manding column of the ablls a little more filled in.

Any advice? Suggestions?

Oh, Hayley communicates with sign paired with vocal approximations.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

-Kim

Mom to Cady 9 asd, Hayley 7 asd, Corey 5 as

[Guest guest]

Kimberely,

I wonder if your 2nd explanaition, that the school is

providing some sort of a prompt, maybe subtle, that

does not occur at home, isn't correct. If they really

are following the same procedures as you are at home,

I can't imagine why the % of prompted vs. spontaneous

mands would be so much different.

One thing I've learned in working with my son, who

would love nothing more than to go through life being

fully prompted, is to make certain we follow a

prompted trial immediately with a transfer trial.

He's required to complete a 2nd trial with much less,

or no, prompting before he gets his desired object

(obviously this is done very quickly)

When we failed to do that, in the past we got much

prompt dependency, and very little progress.

Good luck,

Eileen, Florida

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