ERIC EJ931950: Parent-Implemented Mand Training: Acquisition of Framed Manding in a Young Boy with Partial Hemispherectomy

2011·0.13 MB·English

by  ERIC

JOURNALOFAPPLIEDBEHAVIORANALYSIS 2011, 44, 205–209 NUMBER1 (SPRING2011)
PARENT-IMPLEMENTED MAND TRAINING: ACQUISITION OF
FRAMED MANDING IN A YOUNG BOY WITH
PARTIAL HEMISPHERECTOMY
EINAR T. INGVARSSON
UNIVERSITYOFNORTHTEXAS,
CHILDSTUDYCENTER,FORTWORTH
This study examined the effects of parent-implemented mand training on the acquisition of
framed manding in a 4-year-old boy who had undergone partial hemispherectomy. Framed
manding became the predominant mand form when and only when the intervention was
implementedwitheachpreferredtoy,butminimalgeneralizationtountrainedtoysnevertheless
occurred. A pure mand test suggested that manding was controlled by the relevant motivating
operation.
Key words: differential reinforcement, generalization, hemispherectomy, language training,
mandtraining, verbalbehavior
_______________________________________________________________________________
Mandsareverbaloperantsthatareevokedby the current study, the observers scored putative
a specific motivating operation (MO) and mands as mands only when the participant
maintained by reinforcement relevant to the did not have access to the preferred item.
MO (Skinner, 1957). Mand training is an Second, in the current study, a pure mand test
important component in early intervention, was conducted in which the preferred items
becauseastrongmandrepertoireenablesoneto were moved out of the participant’s visual
appropriately request preferred items and field, further decreasing the likelihood that the
activities.ArecentstudybyHernandez,Hanley, responses may have functioned as tacts rather
Ingvarsson, and Tiger (2007) suggested that than mands.
teaching a sentence frame (e.g., ‘‘May I have
the cars, please?’’) rather than a single-word METHOD
mand (e.g., ‘‘cars’’) increased the likelihood
Participant and Setting
of generalization across untargeted preferred
Caleb was 4 years old at the time of the
items. The current experiment employed sim-
study. His mother reported that at 8 months of
ilar procedures while exploring the feasibility of
age, an invasive tumor the size of a large orange
training the participant’s mother to carry out
had been removed from the left hemisphere of
training of framed mands in a home setting.
his brain, leading to the loss of the entire
Twomethodological limitationsof theprevious
temporal lobe and sections of the occipital,
study were addressed. First, Hernandez et al.
parietal,andfrontallobes.Calebspokeinsingle
used a free-operant procedure, in which
words and three- to four-word phrases. His
observers scored putative mand topographies
mother reported that he did not reliably
regardless of whether the relevant MO was in
produce complete and grammatically correct
effect (i.e., the items were out of reach). In
sentences.
I thank Reitha Philips for her valuable contribution to
Response Measurement and Interobserver
thisresearch.
Address correspondence to Einar T. Ingvarsson, Agreement
Department of Behavior Analysis, 1155 Union Circle, Framedmandsweredefinedassaying‘‘CanI
Box 310919, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas
have the [toy], please?’’ Incomplete-sentence
76203(e-mail: [email protected]).
doi:10.1901/jaba.2011.44-205 mandsweredefinedasphrasesthatincludedthe
205
206 EINAR T. INGVARSSON
name of the toy but did not include the whole differentialreinforcementcontingentonframed
targetedframe(e.g.,‘‘havethetrain,’’‘‘Iwantto mands were evaluated using a multiple baseline
play trains,’’ ‘‘play with bubbles’’). Single-word design across responses. Each session consisted
mands were defined as saying the name of the of three components, with one preferred toy
preferred toy. Observers used 10-s partial- presented in each component. The order of
interval recording to score the occurrence of components was always the same: trains,
single-word, incomplete-sentence, or framed followed by bubbles, and then the whistle. In
mands. The observers also scored whether the each component, his mother presented the
framed mands were prompted (i.e., immediate- relevant toy, but kept it out of his reach. In
ly preceded by an echoic model) or unprompt- baseline, she provided 30-s access to the
ed, and whether the putative mands occurred preferred toy contingent on single-word, in-
when the relevant MO was present (i.e., when
complete-sentence,orframedmands.After30s,
the preferred item was out of reach). Only
she again restricted the toy (constituting the
mands that occurred when the preferred item
start of the next opportunity to respond) until
was out of reach were counted as such and
Caleb emitted another mand. For the interven-
included in the analysis. Caleb’s mother served
tion, his mother provided access to the toys
as the primary observer.
contingent on the occurrence of framed mands
A second observer simultaneously but inde-
only.Sheemployedaconstant5-spromptdelay
pendentlycollecteddataduring46%ofsessions.
(Halle, Marshall, & Spradlin, 1979), using
An agreement was scored if the observers agreed
echoic prompting, to teach the framed mand.
onallscoringwithinagiven10-sinterval,anda
At the start of the intervention phase, the
disagreement was scored if the observers dis-
mother provided an immediate echoic prompt
agreed on any scoring within the interval.
(e.g., ‘‘Say, ‘can I have the whistle, please?’’’)
Interobserver agreement was calculated for each
during the first two opportunities. She then
sessionbydividingthenumberofagreementsby
inserted a 5-s delay between the start of the
the total number of intervals and averaged 99%
opportunity (i.e., the presentation or restriction
across all sessions (range, 91% to 100%).
of the toy) and the delivery of the echoic
Procedure and Design prompt. If two consecutive opportunities oc-
curred without Caleb emitting an unprompted
Caleb’s mother conducted all sessions in the
response, his mother reverted to immediate
family’s living room. The author supervised
prompting for the next two consecutive oppor-
pilot sessions with the mother and trained her
tunities, and then implemented the 5-s delay
how to conduct the measurement and experi-
mental procedures. Subsequently, she met with again. Both prompted and unprompted framed
the author weekly and reviewed video clips of a mands produced 30-s access to the preferred
subset of the sessions to ensure procedural toy,butonlyunpromptedmandswereincluded
fidelity. First, she identified 10 toys that were in the analysis. If no responding occurred for
evaluated in a paired-choice preference assess- 60 s during either baseline or intervention, his
ment (Fisher et al., 1992). The three most mother removed the toy from his visual field
highly preferred toys (whistle, bubbles, and and then re-presented it; this constituted the
trains) were used in the subsequent mand start of another opportunity to respond. Each
training analysis. A brief tact assessment session component was terminated after five
indicated that Caleb was able to tact each item opportunities.
three consecutive times. A pure mand test immediately followed the
Next, Caleb’s mother conducted the mand mand training analysis. The purpose of this test
training analysis, in which the effects of was to evaluate whether Caleb would mand for
PARENT-IMPLEMENTED MAND TRAINING 207
the items while they were out of sight, and his mother restricted access to these items. This
whether he would mand for the preferred items indicates that requests for these two items likely
and refrain from manding for a nonpreferred functioned purely as mands (and not as tacts)
item. His mother identified the nonpreferred because the requests were made while the items
item as a bottle of medicine that Caleb did not were out of sight (Wallace, Iwata, & Hanley,
like. The pure mand test consisted of two 2006). The fact that Caleb never manded for
sessions conducted on consecutive days. At the the nonpreferred item (medicine) during the
beginning of each session, all four items puremandtestsuggeststhatrestrictionofaccess
(whistle, bubbles, train, and medicine) were to preferred items functioned as an MO for
placed in front of Caleb and he was allowed to manding. However, this conclusion is tentative
interact with the items for 1 min. His mother because Caleb never manded for the whistle
then placed the items in a box, which was (which was the most preferred toy in the initial
moved out of sight. Any mand (single word,
preference assessment). The whistle may have
incomplete sentence, or framed) produced 30-s
lost its reinforcing value more quickly than the
access to the item, and his mother then placed
other two toys because it offers a rather limited
theitembackinthebox,whichremainedoutof
range of possible play activities.
sight. An item was removed from the array
The current study extends Hernandez et al.
when Caleb had manded for it five consecutive
(2007) in at least three distinct ways. First,
times. If he manded for that item again he was
Hernandez et al. used a free-operant arrange-
reminded that the item had been removed and
ment, in which putative mand forms were
asked to choose something else. If he did not
measured independent of whether the relevant
mand for 60 s, his mother showed him the
MO(theitemsbeingoutofreach)wasineffect.
itemsinthebox,whichwasthenremovedfrom
Therefore, some of the scored responses may
sight. This constituted a new opportunity for
not have functioned as mands. The current
manding. The session was terminated following
study employed a trial-based analysis, in which
three consecutive opportunities with no mand-
mands were scored only when the relevant MO
ing. (The session would also have been
was in effect. Second, in the Hernandez et al.
terminatedifallfouritemshadmettheremoval
study, the preferred items were always within
criterion, but this never occurred.)
theparticipants’fieldofvision,leavingopenthe
possibility that the mands may have functioned
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
partiallyastacts.Thepuremandtestconducted
Figure 1 (top three panels) shows the results in the current study addressed this limitation.
of the mand training analysis. In baseline, Third, the current results suggest the feasibility
incomplete sentences emerged as Caleb’s pre- of teaching parents to prompt and differentially
dominant mand form. With the onset of the reinforce framed manding in a home setting.
intervention, framed mands increased to high It is important to note that because different
levels when and only when his mother mand forms (single word, incomplete sentence,
introduced the prompt delay and restricted and framed) produced reinforcement in all
contingency. However, when she implemented baselines, only the first instance of framed
the intervention for trains, minimal generaliza- manding in untreated baseline can be consid-
tion was seen to bubbles. When she introduced ered generalization (i.e., the framed mand
the intervention for bubbles, minimal general- responses that occurred in Session 5 in the
ization was seen for the whistle. In the pure bubbles baseline and Session 10 in the whistle
mand analysis (bottom panel), Caleb manded baseline). All subsequent framed mands that
firstforthebubblesandthenforthetrainsuntil occurred during the baseline conditions may
208 EINAR T. INGVARSSON
Figure1. Thetopthreepanelsshowthenumberoftargetresponsesforeachofthethreesessioncomponents.The
bottompanelshowsthecumulativenumberofmandsduringthepuremandtest.Thelegendinthebottompanelapplies
tothatpanelonly.
PARENT-IMPLEMENTED MAND TRAINING 209
have been maintained by the reinforcement ventions in the home. Finally, the current
contingency (i.e., the framed mand responses evaluation was limited because few exemplars
that occurred in Sessions 7 through 9 in the were included. Future research should include
bubbles baseline and Session 11 in the whistle probeswithagreaternumberofpreferreditems
baseline). These responses collectively can be to which manding might generalize (cf. Baer,
described as representing the indirect effects of Peterson, & Sherman, 1967).
theintervention.These indirect effects were less
robust (i.e., fewer responses occurred) than in
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A limitation of the current study is that, Copley.
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Establishment of mands following tact training as a
videotaped session during weekly meetings,
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the tapes were not preserved for later scoring.
The inclusion of systematic evaluations of
Received April 9,2009
treatment fidelity would strengthen future
Final acceptanceOctober 13,2009
studies that evaluate parent-implemented inter- Action Editor,Chris Ninness