IMPORTANCE OF THE MAND

1. Manding pairs the adult with the delivery of reinforcement specific to the mand.

2. Manding is essential for social interaction.

3. Mand training helps to establish both speaker and listener roles.

4. Manding is verbal behavior that produces immediate benefit for the student and therefore strengthens it.

5. Development of a strong manding repertoire may be essential for the development of all other types of verbal behavior (ex. tacting, intraverbal, etc.). Manding teaches a student that verbal behavior is valuable; the other repertoires teach what to say once the student wants to talk.

6. This is the first repertoire learned by all students (ex. babies cry when they are hungry and as a result they receive food). Eventually, the baby learns to say words to receive food and other items/activities that are reinforcing.

7. By teaching a mand repertoire, you may replace many problem behaviors.

8. It is unlikely that you will be able to develop a manding repertoire by teaching the student to label items.

9. It is imperative that you begin teaching the student to ask for his or her strongest reinforcers.

10. It is most effective to teach manding at times when the motivation is the strongest. These times will change from moment to moment, day to day, week to week, etc., so it will be important to be flexible so that you teach manding at the optimal time.

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