Using Incidental Teaching to Teach Adolescents with Autism to Mand Using “When?”

Manding is an important skill for children to learn to access not only preferred items but also information that can be crucial to their success in academic, professional, or social settings. There is a need to continue research to best teach mands for information. The current study examined the effectiveness of using incidental teaching to teach adolescents with developmental disabilities to mand for information. In particular, participants were taught to mand “When?” after being told that a preferred stimulus was not currently available. Once a participant manded “When?,” experimenters stated that the stimulus would be available after the completion of a mediating response (e.g., completing a mastered task). All participants learned to mand “When?” within 12 sessions and continued to mand during maintenance probes. Results extended previous research by demonstrating the validity of a technology for teaching mands for information to adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, a population not previously evaluated.