Increasing the mand repertoire of children with autism through the use of an interrupted chain procedure.

Three preschoolers with autism learned to ask for missing items. The team broke a fun chain of actions by hiding one needed piece. They then gave a quick vocal hint and slowly removed the hint.

Each child liked a different chain: puzzles, toy cookies, or a marble run. When a piece was gone, the child had to say its name to keep playing. The study used a multiple baseline across kids to show the teaching caused the new words.

All three kids soon asked for the hidden piece without any prompt. Their new words showed up at home and at school. Bonus: each child also named the items later without wanting them, a free tact gain.

Chin Wong et al. (2017) used the same prompt-and-fade logic to grow divergent intraverbal answers. Both studies show one core rule: give a small hint, then take it away, and new verbal operants bloom.

Patton et al. (2020) stretched the tactic to joint-attention bids. They used script fading instead of an interrupted chain, but the least-to-most prompt DNA matches. The chain idea works for mands and for pointing-to-share.

Muharib et al. (2021) looked at older SGD users. Echoic prompts plus bigger candy also lifted spoken requests. The 2012 chain method starts earlier; the 2021 echoic method scales later. Together they map a vocal mand path from preschool to school age.

If a child loves a toy routine, hide one piece and wait. Give a gentle vocal cue like "What do you need?" Then say less each day. In one week you can turn silent reaching into clear words that travel across rooms and people.