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Manding for Attention
Manding for Attention
Manding for Attention

Manding for Attention

Below is a general skill sequence for helping learners increase their range in reinforcers.

Manding for Attention is a skill area that helps learners gain the attention of others appropriately. Unlike the first tier of manding for preferred items, learners in this skill area are motivated for the attention of others. This skill area builds on basic manding goals and sets the stage for a variety of other social interactions. It also pushes the therapist and the BCBA to find opportunities for the learner to engage with people, which can be challenging but ultimately rewarding.

How this skill area relates to your assessments!

This skill area aligns with various assessments and their respective domains, with milestone and domain codes provided for reference. Additionally, DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for Autism are included to help clinicians identify how this skill area potentially supports medical necessity in relation to the diagnosis.

VB-MAPP (Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program)

  • Mand, M 5-M, Emits 10 mands w/o prompts except item and/or “What do you want?”
  • Mand, M 8-M, Emits 5 different 2 word mands (not including “I want”).

AFLS (Assessment of Functional Living Skills)

  • Basic Communication, BC3, Uses communication device
  • Basic Communication, BC4, Spontaneous requests for items and activities
  • Social Awareness & Manners, SA4, Says "excuse me" to request others to move

DSM-V Diagnostic Criteria for Autism

  • A1, Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.

CDC’s Developmental Milestones

  • 2 years, Cognitive Milestones, Says at least two words together, like “More milk.”

Treatment Plan Goal Ideas

This is a list of treatment plan goals. These are different from the goals you will find in the skill sequence below. Your treatment plan goals encompass any number of goals from the skill sequence. Sometime they will include multiple goals from the sequence (”Learner will label 5 toys”) and sometimes the treatment plan goal will be simply consist of a really important goal from the skill sequence (”Will label caregiver”). An analogy I like to use goes as follows: Each skill sequence goal (commonly known as a “target”) represent each stair in a flight of stairs. The treatment plan goal is the flight itself.

Important: Some of the more advanced skills are geared towards learners that can use vocalizations. Milestones for vocal learners are marked with an asterisk. If you learner is non-vocal, work through the first couple of treatment plan goals that require gestures for attention and ensure they are fluent in them You can move on to the next skill sequence once these goals have been met. For vocal learners, continue through the all of the targets in the sequence. learners may be non-verbal Milestones with asterisks denote treatment plan goals that can be used with vocal learners.

Treatment plan goal ideas for this particular skill area are as follows:

  • When motivated for the attention of an adult, the learner will tolerate a physical prompt that prompts them to touch the hand of the adult they are motivated for.
  • When motivated for the attention of an adult, the learner will touch or tap the shoulder of an adult to gain their attention.
  • When motivated for an adult’s attention, learner will present the corresponding picture from a picture exchange that indicates that they want the adult that they want to engage.
  • When motivated for the attention of an adult, the learner will use their name to gain their attention.*
  • When motivated for the attention of an adult or peer, the learner will tap their shoulder and say “excuse me” to gain access to their attention.*

Component Skills

Your learner may need to be fluent in these component skills first before introducing this goal/skill area. Component skills for this skill sequence may include skill areas that are fundamental to other areas. Fluency in the skill areas listed below may increase the likelihood that your learner will succeed in this skill sequence and those afterward.

Arguably, manding for attention is the second tier of manding. In the first tier, we teach manding for preferred items. In the second, we teach manding for people who might be in possession of our preferred items—and therefore these people become preferred themselves. A component sequence to manding for attention is manding for items. See below.

Intro to Reinforcer/Preference ExpansionIntro to Reinforcer/Preference ExpansionIntro to MandingIntro to Manding

Skill Possibilities

Below is a possible skill sequence for working on increasing your learner’s ability to mand for attention. Note that every learner is different and that you likely will need to tweak and vary some programming to their needs. Click the triangle icon to view the full description for each skill in the sequence/area.

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#1 Touches adult’s hand for attention (physical)

How to Run

  1. Contrive motivation for adult attention (adult holds a preferred item)…
  2. …pivot attention away (adult pivots away from learner with preferred item)…
  3. …adult reaches free hand towards learner so they can easily touch it…
  4. …adult pivots attention back, gives social praise, and returns preferred item (with a mand). Correct: Touches hand in anyway that is not aggressive or harmful without engaging in high magnitude problem behavior. Incorrect: Hits adult’s hand, engages in further problem behavior.

Additional Notes

  • Ensure that learner is actually motivated for the target area. Consistently having highly preferred items/activities in this particular area can help.
  • Look for/control competing reinforcers.
  • Allow access even if low magnitude problem behavior is occurring during the first stages.
  • Going straight into an errorless, physical prompt (if not specified already within the description) may be helpful during the beginning stages right after the program is introduced.

Materials

  • None

Research/Resources

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#2 Touches adult’s hand for attention (no prompt)

How to Run

  1. Contrive motivation for adult attention (adult holds a preferred item).
  2. Pivot attention away (adult pivots away from learner with preferred item).
  3. Learner should independently touches the adult’s hand. 
  4. Adult pivots attention back, gives social praise, and returns preferred item (with a mand). Correct: Touches hand in anyway that is not aggressive or harmful without engaging in high magnitude problem behavior. Incorrect: Hits adult’s hand, engages in further problem behavior.

Additional Notes

  • Ensure that learner is actually motivated for the target area. Consistently having highly preferred items/activities in this particular area can help
  • Look for/control competing reinforcers.
  • Allow access even if low magnitude problem behavior is occurring during the first stages.
  • Going straight into an errorless, physical prompt (if not specified already within the description) may be helpful during the beginning stages right after the program is introduced.

Materials

  • None

Research/Resources

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#3 Taps adult’s hand for attention

How to Run

  1. Contrive motivation for adult attention (adult holds a preferred item).
  2. Pivot attention away (adult pivots away from learner with preferred item).
  3. Learner independently touches or tap hand of adult more than once.
  4. Adult pivots attention back, gives social praise, and returns preferred item (with a mand). Correct: Touches hand in anyway that is not aggressive or harmful without engaging in high magnitude problem behavior. Incorrect: Hits adult’s hand, engages in further problem behavior.

Additional Notes

  • Ensure that learner is actually motivated for the target area. Consistently having highly preferred items/activities in this particular area can help.
  • Look for/control competing reinforcers.
  • Allow access even if low magnitude problem behavior is occurring during the first stages.
  • Going straight into an errorless, physical prompt (if not specified already within the description) may be helpful during the beginning stages right after the program is introduced.

Materials

  • None

Research/Resources

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#4 Taps adult’s shoulder for attention

How to Run

  1. Contrive motivation for adult attention (adult holds a preferred item).
  2. Pivot attention away (adult pivots away from learner with preferred item).
  3. Learner independently touches or tap SHOULDER of adult more than once,
  4. Adult pivots attention back, gives social praise, and returns preferred item (with a mand). Correct: Touches or taps SHOULDER more than once and in anyway that is not aggressive or harmful without engaging in high magnitude problem behavior. Incorrect: Hits adult or engages in further problem behavior or only touches hand once.

Additional Notes

  • Ensure that learner is actually motivated for the target area. Consistently having highly preferred items/activities in this particular area can help.
  • Look for/control competing reinforcers.
  • Allow access even if low magnitude problem behavior is occurring during the first stages.
  • Going straight into an errorless, physical prompt (if not specified already within the description) may be helpful during the beginning stages right after the program is introduced.

Materials

  • None

Research/Resources

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#5 Gets adults attention nonverbally

How to Run

  1. Contrive motivation for adult attention (adult holds a preferred item).
  2. Pivot attention away (adult pivots away from learner with preferred item).
  3. Learner independently gain your attention using non-verbal gestures (tapping shoulder, etc.)
  4. Adult pivots attention back, gives social praise, and returns preferred item (with a mand).

Additional Notes

  • Ensure that learner is actually motivated for the target area. Consistently having highly preferred items/activities in this particular area can help.
  • Look for/control competing reinforcers.
  • Allow access even if low magnitude problem behavior is occurring during the first stages.
  • Going straight into an errorless, physical prompt (if not specified already within the description) may be helpful during the beginning stages right after the program is introduced.

Materials

  • None

Research/Resources

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#6 Mands for adult attention using name (within sight)

How to Run

  1. Gain control of a preferred item that the learner is currently motivated for.
  2. Pivot away from the learner to indicate that you are not attending.
  3. Once the learner says therapist/adult’s name, pivot back to the learner and grant access to the item. Correct: Learner says the name of the corresponding person withholding attention. Incorrect: Learner tantrums for attention.
  4. Adult pivots attention back, gives social praise, and returns preferred item (with a mand).

Additional Notes

  • Ensure that learner is actually motivated for the item/activity that is in the adult’s possession.
  • Look for/control competing reinforcers.
  • Allow access even if low magnitude problem behavior is occurring during the first stages.
  • Going straight into an errorless, verbal prompt (if not specified already within the description) may be helpful during the beginning stages right after the program is introduced.
  • Ensure that you have actual control of the preferred item/activity when contriving the mand.

Materials

  • None

Research/Resources

‣
#7 Mands for attention using “look, (name)”/”watch, (name)”

How to Run

  1. Gain control of a preferred item that the learner is currently motivated for.
  2. Pivot away from the learner to indicate that you are not attending.
  3. Once the learner says “Look, (your name)” or “Watch, (your name)” pivot back to the learner and grant access to the item. Correct: Learner says the name of the corresponding person withholding attention. Incorrect: Learner tantrums for attention.
  4. Adult pivots attention back, gives social praise, and returns preferred item (with a mand).

Additional Notes

  • Ensure that learner is actually motivated for the item/activity that is in the adult’s possession.
  • Look for/control competing reinforcers.
  • Allow access even if low magnitude problem behavior is occurring during the first stages.
  • Going straight into an errorless, verbal prompt (if not specified already within the description) may be helpful during the beginning stages right after the program is introduced.
  • Ensure that you have actual control of the preferred item/activity when contriving the mand.
  • Giving the learner the words to say and granting access to the preferred item/activity will likely be required through the first sessions of training.

Materials

  • None

Research/Resources

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#8 Mands for attention using name (out of sight)

How to Run

  1. Allow another adult to maintain access to a highly preferred item/activity.
  2. The adult should leave the area with the preferred item/activity.
  3. After the person leaves the area, the learner should mand for the person through using their name.
  4. Once the learner says the person’s name, help the learner go find that person.
  5. Once the person has been found, have the learner mand for the preferred person’s attention again using their name (see protocol for manding for adult attention when they are in-sight).
  6. Adult should pivot toward learner, give praise, allowing the learner to mand for the preferred item/activity, and eventually gaining access to it. Correct: Learner says the name of the corresponding person withholding attention. Incorrect: Learner tantrums for attention.

Additional Notes

  • Ensure that learner is actually motivated for the item/activity that is in the adult’s possession.
  • Look for/control repeating reinforcers.
  • Allow access even if low magnitude problem behavior is occurring during the first stages.
  • Going straight into an errorless, verbal prompt (if not specified already within the description) may be helpful during the beginning stages right after the program is introduced.
  • Ensure that you have actual control of the preferred item/activity when contriving the mand.
  • Giving the learner the words to say while granting access to the preferred item/activity will likely be required through the first sessions of training.

Materials

  • None

Research/Resources

‣
#9 Taps for attention, says name

How to Run

  1. Gain control of a preferred item that the learner is currently motivated for.
  2. Pivot away from the learner to indicate that you are not attending.
  3. Once the learner says your name and taps hand/shoulder, pivot back to the learner and grant access to the item. Correct: Learner says the name of the corresponding person and taps their hand/shoulder. Incorrect: Learner tantrums for attention.

Additional Notes

  • Ensure that learner is actually motivated for the item/activity that is in the adult’s possession.
  • Look for/control competing reinforcers.
  • Allow access even if low magnitude problem behavior is occurring during the first stages.
  • Going straight into an errorless, verbal prompt (if not specified already within the description) may be helpful during the beginning stages right after the program is introduced.
  • Ensure that you have actual control of the preferred item/activity when contriving the mand.
  • Giving the learner the words to say while granting access to the preferred item/activity will likely be required through the first sessions of training.

Materials

Spaces with easy access to preferred items and activities.

Toy Rooms

Gross Motor Rooms

Sensory Rooms

Playgrounds/Outdoors

Arts & Craft Areas

Research/Resources

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#10* Taps for attention, says “excuse me”

How to Run

  1. Gain control of a preferred item that the learner is currently motivated for.
  2. Pivot away from the learner to indicate that you are not attending.
  3. Once the learner says “Excuse me” and taps hand/shoulder, pivot back to the learner and grant access to the item. Correct: Learner taps their hand/shoulder and says “excuse me”. Incorrect: Learner tantrums for attention.

Additional Notes

  • Ensure that learner is actually motivated for the item/activity that is in the adult’s possession.
  • Look for/control competing reinforcers.
  • Allow access even if low magnitude problem behavior is occurring during the first stages.
  • Going straight into an errorless, verbal prompt (if not specified already within the description) may be helpful during the beginning stages right after the program is introduced.
  • Ensure that you have actual control of the preferred item/activity when contriving the mand.
  • Giving the learner the words to say while granting access to the preferred item/activity will likely be required through the first sessions of training.

Materials

  • None

Research/Resources

Concurrent Skills

Working on these skills at the same time could help with goal mastery. Maybe your learner has mastered these skills already. Perhaps they are already listed as component skills above. That’s okay! Targeting other learning channels might help your learner.

Mands for EscapeMands for EscapeManding for Actions Manding for Actions Mands for Missing ItemsMands for Missing Items

2-3 Word Mands 2-3 Word Mands

Echoic-to-Mand TransfersEchoic-to-Mand Transfers

Composite Skills

These are the possible next steps for learners who have mastered, or are mastering, the skills listed above. Note that new skill areas may require fluency in other component skills not listed above. Also, you can introduce composite skill sequences prematurely to keep your learner progressing, as generativity may occur earlier than expected.

If you learner is non-vocal, work through the first couple of treatment plan goals that require gestures for attention and ensure they are fluent in them You can move on to the next skill sequence once these goals have been met. For vocal learners, continue through the all of the targets in the sequence.

2-3 Word Mands 2-3 Word Mands

Follow the link below to better understand component-composite analysis.

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Research and Resources
How a component analysis can reshape the way you introduce skills to your learners

The difficulties in coming up with the right programs for your learner can be endless. Very few BCBAs know about or understand the utility in using a little thing called component analysis and how it can help them out in their goal writing. A component what?

flatrockweekly.substack.com

How a component analysis can reshape the way you introduce skills to your learners
Full Circle: A Strategy to Keep Learner Programs Moving

Here is the important, second half of my first post on component analysis. A composite is a larger skill that is produced from two or more smaller component skills. Basically, a skill made up of other skills. It's a blending of all the mastered, component skills before it.

flatrockweekly.substack.com

Full Circle: A Strategy to Keep Learner Programs Moving
  • Carnett, A., Waddington, H., Hansen, S. et al.  Teaching Mands to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Behavior Chain Interruption Strategies: a Systematic Review. Adv Neurodev Disord  1, 203–220 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41252-017-0038-0
  • Elizabeth R. Lorah, Shawn P. Gilroy, Philip N. Hineline, Acquisition of peer manding and listener responding in young children with autism, Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Volume 8, Issue 2, 2014, Pages 61-67, ISSN 1750-9467, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2013.10.009.
  • Hartman, E.C., Klatt, K.P. The Effects of Deprivation, Presession Exposure, and Preferences on Teaching Manding to Children with Autism. Analysis Verbal Behav  21, 135–144 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393015
  • Kaitlin G. Causin, Kristin M. Albert, Vincent J. Carbone, Emily J. Sweeney-Kerwin, The role of joint control in teaching listener responding to children with autism and other developmental disabilities, Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Volume 7, Issue 9, 2013, Pages 997-1011, ISSN 1750-9467, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2013.04.011.
  • Training Staff to Increase Manding In Students With Autism: Two Preliminary Case Studies. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/bin.1349
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Disclaimer

Consistent with ethical obligations outlined by the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB), users acknowledge that goal selection/direction is the responsibility of the BCBA. Users understand that goals should be tailored to the learner while ultimately involving the input of clients/stakeholders. Users understand their ethical obligations to the client/stakeholder concerning the selection, implementation, design, and minimization of risk regarding behavior change interventions as outlined in BACB Code. As such, this skill sequence serves as a general framework for generating ideas around this particular skill area and not as an assessment or curriculum.

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