Teaching caregivers to implement mand training using speech generating devices

Suberman and colleagues trained three caregivers to teach their children to ask for things with a speech-generating device.

The team used behavioral skills training: they showed a short video, let the parent practice, and gave live feedback.

Sessions happened at home and lasted about an hour. The study tracked how well parents ran the teaching steps and how often the child pressed the device to ask for toys or snacks.

All three parents reached near-perfect accuracy after one or two coaching visits.

Two of the three children quickly started pressing the device on their own to ask for items.

The third child needed extra prompts, but still showed growth.

Conine et al. (2025) repeated the same caregiver-BST recipe for a different skill—getting toddlers to respond to their name—and saw the same jump in parent accuracy, but they warn that skills fade without brief booster sessions.

Courtemanche et al. (2021) and Kamana et al. (2024) show you can keep the BST recipe while training 18 staff at once or spreading across many group homes; the gains stay high even with large groups and staff turnover.

Rapport et al. (1982) ran the first small-group BST package for family therapists; Suberman simply swaps the learner from therapist to parent and swaps the skill from therapy to SGD mand training.

You can give parents one evening of BST and send them home ready to run SGD mand sessions.

The child often starts making new requests the same week, cutting down on problem behavior that stems from being unable to ask.

If you coach families, add a quick follow-up call or text prompt—Conine’s data show it keeps the skill alive.