Teaching Mands for Social Information to Individuals with Developmental Disabilities

Objectives Individuals with autism often have deficits in communication skills that impede social functioning. One of these skills is manding, or requesting, for information about a social partner, which is necessary for maintaining reciprocal conversations. This study extended previous research that developed a procedure for teaching young children to emit discriminated mands for social information using a variety of questions. Methods A concurrent multiple baseline design across participants was used to teach two adolescents and one young adult each diagnosed with a developmental disability to emit discriminated mands for social information when an establishing operation (EO) or abolishing operation (AO) was present. EO trials consisted of questions that were unknown and unobservable to the participant, such as "What's Mary's favorite color?" AO trials were comprised of questions that were known and observable to the participant, such as "What color is Mary's shirt?" EO and AO trials were randomly interspersed throughout each baseline, treatment, posttest, and generalization session. Results Participants were taught to mand for the unknown information during EO trials only. All participants acquired discriminated mands for social information, as mands were produced under the EO condition and not under the AO condition. Generalization was observed for all participants during sessions with a novel social partner. Conclusions Mands for social information are critical for maintaining conversations. However, many adolescents and adults with autism have not yet acquired this skill. This study demonstrated an effective procedure to teach mands for social information with this population.