Teaching two children with autism to mand for known and unknown items using contrived motivating operations

Two boys with autism needed to ask for missing puzzle pieces. The team first taught them to name each piece. Then they started a fun task and quietly removed a piece the boys had never seen.

This setup is called an interrupted-chain. The kids wanted to finish, so they had a reason to ask. The goal was to see if they could ask for the mystery piece anyway.

Both boys soon said things like “I need the blue gear” even when they had only named that gear before. They asked for both familiar and brand-new items.

The skill moved to new toys and lasted weeks. Naming alone was enough to let the mand pop out when the item was missing.

Meier et al. (2012) showed that teaching a child to name a toy can also make the child ask for it later. Jessel’s team flips the order: teach the name first, then see the ask appear.

Marion et al. (2012) used the same trick—contrive a need—but taught “which?” questions. Here the kids learned to name the exact missing piece instead.

Hu et al. (2023) pushed the idea into a second language. Together the papers say: once a child can tact, give them a real reason to talk and new mands show up free.

You can skip long mand drills. Just teach the tact, then create a quick need—hide a piece, remove the spoon, turn off the iPad. Probe first; you might get the mand for free. If not, one short prompt inside the chain usually finishes the job.