Research: An Evaluation of Strategies to Maintain Mands at Practical Levels

In order to teach children with autism to ask for things (mand), it is important to quickly give them what they ask for. This study was designed to see at what point it is possible to stop giving them everything they ask for and yet still have them ask for things. All four of the children in the study learned to ask for yellow and blue cards. The authors discovered that all of the children needed to be given the card within five minutes of asking for it in order to continue asking for cards. One child needed to get the card within a minute of asking for it in order to know that he could keep asking for the card. The authors describe how their research may be able to help in designing better picture exchange communication systems (PECS).