Below is a general skill sequence for helping learners to mand for general information using “what”.

Developing a learner’s ability to mand is an ongoing process. Once learners can mand for the location of certain preferred items, activities, and people, it may be a good idea to expand on this by having them mand for information with “What.” This skill area seeks to do that. Not only does this increase the learners ability to advocate for themselves, it also allows them to develop more language in general and paves the way for more complex manding scenarios where more information is needed.

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.

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

Learner will ask “What is this?” or similar when motivated for more information about an unknown object.
Learner will mand for more information about an object, action, and thing using “What”.

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.

Intro to Manding

Manding for Actions

Manding for Attention

Mands for Escape

Manding for Locations

Mands for Missing Items

2-3 Word Mands

Manding with “Where”

Labels Common Items 1.0

Labels Common Actions 1.0

Skill Possibilities

Below is a possible skill sequence for working on increasing your learner’s ability to complete “what” mands. 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 Mands “What is it?” for info about object

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#2 Mands “What does it say?” for info about text

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#3 Mands “What is their name?” for info about a stranger

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#4 Mands “What are you doing?” for info about action

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#5 Mands “What should I do?” for info about the next task/expectation

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#6 Mands “What is your name?” to someone they don’t know

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.

Manding with “Where”

Labels Common Items 1.0

Labels Common Actions 1.0

4-5 Word Mands

Compound Manding

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.

Manding with “Who” (Coming Soon!)

Manding with “How” (Coming Soon!)

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

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Research and Resources

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Disclaimer

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