Discrimination and Generalization of Negatively-Reinforced Mands in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Example/non-example mand drills reliably teach preschoolers with autism to reject only the foods they truly hate, and the skill lasts.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Chezan et al. (2019) worked with three preschoolers who have autism. The goal was to teach the kids to say "no" or "I don't want that" when offered food they hate.
The team used example and non-example trials. In one trial the child saw a liked food and was prompted to accept. In the next trial the child saw a hated food and was prompted to reject it.
Training happened in short tabletop sessions. After each correct rejection the adult quickly removed the yucky food. This quick removal acted as negative reinforcement.
What they found
All three children learned to ask for removal only when the food was truly disliked. They stopped saying "no" to foods they enjoyed.
The skill carried over to new foods the kids had never seen before. One month later the children still used the rejection mand correctly.
How this fits with other research
The study extends Jessel et al. (2022). That team taught kids to ask for missing items they had never seen. C et al. used the same example/non-example method but for rejecting instead of requesting.
Earlier work by Meier et al. (2012) showed that teaching one verbal skill can spark a second skill without extra lessons. C et al. assumed this link and added careful discrimination probes to prove the child truly meant "no."
Marion et al. (2012) also used discrimination drills to teach "which?" mands. Both studies show that mixing correct and tricky trials during mand training speeds up generalization for preschoolers with autism.
Why it matters
Many kids with autism scream or throw food they hate. Teaching a simple rejection mand gives them a calm way out. You can copy the protocol in under 15 minutes: line up three liked and three hated bites, prompt accept/reject, and reinforce with quick removal. Probe with new foods the next day to check generalization. The skill keeps problem behavior down and makes meals safer for everyone at the table.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In this study, we extended the literature on the generalization of negatively-reinforced mands in three young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). First, we used example and nonexample stimuli embedded in mand training to teach a new, socially appropriate, negatively-reinforced mand to reject unpreferred food items while continuously assessing mand discrimination. Second, we evaluated the discriminated generalization of the newly acquired mand by using untrained example and nonexample stimuli. Finally, we conducted maintenance probes to examine if the new, discriminated mand occurred over time in the absence of training. Results suggest that our mand training produced acquisition of a discriminated negatively-reinforced mand in all three children. Data indicate that the newly acquired, discriminated mand generalized to untrained food items and was maintained after training was discontinued. We discuss the conceptual significance and clinical implications of using example and nonexample stimuli to produce acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of negatively-reinforced mands in young children with ASD and language delays.
Behavior modification, 2019 · doi:10.1177/0145445518781957