I want my child to be able to tell me what they want, but I’m not sure how to teach that.
It is so important that everyone has the ability to request their wants and needs on their own.
In the world of ABA, requesting is also known as manding. It stems from the word “demand” and essentially means the same thing as requesting.
Mand training can be helpful if your child is struggling to make their wants and needs known to those around them.
When children learn to mand for something, that opens new doors that they can acquire additional communication skills.
Think about it, one of the first things children should learn to do is request for things they need or want.
Once they have that down, the communication skills can come rolling in. Sometimes in an overwhelming amount.
Here at The ABA Parent Page, you’ll learn about manding, and how to work on mand training to help your child communicate.
Let’s get into it!
What is a mand?
A mand is a verbal behavior where your child asks for what they need or want.
Your child is motivated by something, therefore is “requesting” it.
Why teach manding?
Being able to request for stuff is a need for early development of language and gaining more verbal social interactions.
Manding should be one of the first verbal behaviors learned by your child.
Learning to mand teaches clear communication for your child.
How to start mand training
- Find items or activities that your child enjoys
- Work on one-word requests that your child will gain access to upon saying the word/approximation
- It helps to move things out of reach when teaching manding
- Work the language up from one-word requests
- Move up to two-word requests, three-word, etc.
- Ensure there is consistency in teaching manding with ensuring a gradual increase in word requests and keeping preferred items out of reach to keep motivation higher
Take Aways
A mand is a verbal behavior that is used to gain access to a want or need.
Manding is an essential verbal behavior for acquiring needs and wants, but also to build on additional language skills.
When starting mand training, ensure preferred items and activities are out of reach to keep the motivation to try manding higher.
Gradually increase the word count requests.
Be consistent!
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