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Using Words to Ask for Items (Manding)

Making requests is a vital part of communication. Without the ability to effectively ask for items or things, for example, children often won’t be able to get their needs met.

Unfortunately, this situation commonly happens for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who typically face challenges with communication.  While each individual’s particular communication deficit might be different, the inability to effectively make requests often results in problem behaviors.

Luckily, applied behavior analysis (ABA therapy) has proven very successful in helping children build the communication skills so that they can effectively make requests — whether that’s through verbal expression or other means of communication.

In this article, we’ll discuss what manding is, why it’s important and how ABA therapy approaches building this skill in children with autism.

Table Of Contents

What is Manding and Why is It Important?

Manding is essentially just the act of asking for items or things. It comes from the word “mand,” which means to request.

Manding is something that children do from a very young age, even before they are able to speak. When a child cries, they are practicing a form of manding — asking for food, to be picked up and changed, for example.

As you can see, manding doesn’t have to involve spoken words. This is important to understand, because it means that manding can be taught to all children with ASD, even if they are non-verbal.

Manding is an important skill for anyone to learn, but especially those who have autism. That’s because when children with ASD are unable to get what they want or need due to their inability to mand effectively, they often act out with negative behaviors such as tantrums, aggression, breaking things or hurting themselves or others.

Not only that, but manding is an essential component of social interactions. Children need to be able to make requests effectively when interacting with peers so they can let others know what they’d like or how they’d like to play.

How Does ABA Therapy Approach Manding?

As with any other target skill or behavior, therapists will begin with a full evaluation and observation of the child they are working with. This step will help them accurately identify the child’s current abilities and/or deficits, as well as their preferences.

With this information in mind, the therapist will be able to set measurable goals for the child in terms of manding, the strategies and tools they’ll use to teach that skill, and the reinforcement methods and items that will be used to reward successful attempts.

ABA therapy is so effective because it’s personalized to each individual child’s unique strengths, challenges and preferences. This ensures that the therapist is meeting the child where they are, helps to get them where they need to be and uses the right tools and rewards that will keep the child effectively engaged and motivated to learn.

Communication Method Example
Crying Infant cries for food or comfort.
Pointing Child points to a desired toy.
Verbal Request Child says the name of the item.
Assistive Technology Child uses an iPad or AAC device to make a request.

 

How Does ABA Therapy Teach Manding?

Manding can be taught in many different ways in ABA therapy. The general structure, though, is built around the concept that the child is rewarded for successfully asking for items. If they don’t make the request properly, then they don’t get access to that item.

Your child’s therapist may use one of their favorite toys as the item for this teaching, since it’s an object that they are very likely to want. They will then show your child how to ask for the item, demonstrating what happens when they ask for it correctly.

The therapist will prompt your child by showing them the item and then using the form of communication that’s appropriate for your child’s abilities to request it. If your child can speak, it will be the word associated with the toy. If they can’t speak, it could be pointing to the item or using other assistance tools such as an iPad.

It’s also important to note that part of your child’s ABA therapy goals could be to progress from one form of manding to the next as they gain other abilities. If they can’t speak now, the manding goal may be to point at the object, but if they’re able to speak in time, the goal may change to verbalizing their request by saying the word associated with the object.

Step Action
1 Evaluate child’s communication abilities and preferences.
2 Set measurable manding goals.
3 Select motivating items (e.g., favorite toys).
4 Prompt child to request item appropriately.
5 Reward successful manding attempts.
6 Gradually progress from non-verbal to verbal requests.

Your Child Can Build Communication Skills with Blue Gems ABA

Manding is an essential skill for any child, but one that can be particularly challenging for those with ASD. That being said, manding is a skill that can be learned over time with the right approach and right methods.

At Blue Gems ABA, we use many different strategies and tools to help children with autism build the communication skills they need to effectively ask for items so they can get their needs met. This, in turn, helps to reduce the problematic behaviors that are often associated with being unable to get what they want or need.

To learn more, please contact us today.