Teaching children with autism to mand for social information

Landa et al. (2020) worked with four children with autism. The team wanted to teach the kids to ask for social information they did not already know.

They used a multiple-baseline design across participants. Adults set up situations where the child needed new social facts. The child had to mand, or ask, for that information before getting it.

All four children learned to ask for the unknown social facts. After they asked, they could answer questions that had been impossible before.

Three of the four kids also used the new mand with new adults, showing generalization.

Shillingsburg et al. (2018) ran a small pilot with the same idea. Landa et al. (2020) copied the EO/AO method but added more kids and stricter controls. This makes the 2020 paper a stronger, updated version of the 2018 work.

Shillingsburg et al. (2019) also taught mands for information, yet they used speech-generating devices for non-vocal children. Landa used spoken words. The two studies together show the mand-for-info procedure works in both vocal and SGD forms.

Green et al. (2020) moved the work into living rooms. They coached parents to evoke question asking at home. Their parent-training approach extends Landa’s clinic model, proving the skill can be taught by moms and dads in daily life.

You can add a quick social-info mand trial to any session. Hold up a photo of an unknown person, keep quiet, and wait. If the child asks, “Who is that?” give the answer and then quiz them. In a week you may see new questions and richer conversation with peers and teachers.