The effects of the question "What do you want? "on mand training outcomes of children with autism.

The team worked with two children with autism. They compared mand training with and without the adult asking, "What do you want?"

Each child got both teaching styles in an alternating pattern. The researchers tracked how fast the kids learned and how well they kept the new mands later.

Adding the question made no real difference. Kids learned to mand at the same speed and kept the skill equally well with or without the extra prompt.

In short, the sentence "What do you want?" is neutral gear — it neither helps nor hurts.

Valentino et al. (2019) looked at 45 mand studies and found most papers skip checks for motivation and reinforcer value. Bowen et al. (2012) is one of those papers — it never tested whether the kids actually wanted the items at that moment.

Lerman et al. (1995) warned us to manage "supplemental stimulation" on purpose. Their advice still stands: if you add extra words, decide why. N et al. show that a polite question alone does not boost learning, so use it only for social reasons, not teaching power.

Murphy et al. (2005) took mand training further by showing kids can ask for new items without direct teaching once equivalence classes form. N et al. stayed at the basic level, proving that simple tweaks like extra questions do not create leaps.

You can stop worrying about dropping the question. If a parent or teacher likes saying "What do you want?" for courtesy, let them — it will not slow the child. If you want faster sessions, skip it. Either way, spend your energy on the big drivers: strong motivation, clear contingencies, and plenty of varied practice.