Back on December 2 and 3, 2010, the Maryland Association for Behavior Analysis (MABA) held its annual conference. It was excellent, possibly the best in the years I have been going. I walked away very excited by all I had learned. I also walked away with a list of things I planned to post about ... and then I got sick for weeks. So please excuse the time delay as I start reporting on the sessions now.
The first day was a workshop by Mark Sundberg, Ph.D, BCBA on "Implementing Intervention Programs Based on the VB-MAPP Assessment." There was more value in this workshop than I can pass on here, so luckily many of the materials are posted on Dr. Sundberg's website: http://www.marksundberg.com/downloads.htm One point that particularly struck me was his discussion of typical language development and manding.
I have understood for some time several good reasons why teaching manding, or in common terms requesting, is the starting point for effective autism intervention. It comes first because it reinforces the power and value of communicating -- speaking, signing or augmentative communication can get the child what they want. It comes first because it makes learning fun. It makes the teacher the source of all good things and a person the child wants to be around.
But Sundberg suggested an even more basic reason -- it comes first naturally. That is, it comes first in developmental sequence. When developing the VB-MAPP, Sundberg was very focused on ensuring it followed proper developmental sequence because failure to follow that sequence had been a weakness of the earlier ABLLS assessment. He consulted many lists of developmental milestones, like this one: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/index.html
He noticed that as early as 3 months there were milestones like this one: "enjoys playing with other people and may cry when playing stops." What's the function served by that cry? A mand for more playing. Similarly, he noted that around this same time, very early, babies develop differential cries for pain vs. hunger vs. wetness, etc. These cries are quickly interpreted and reinforced by new parents as the child's first repertoire of mands. The child knows how to request different things.
Motivation drives the earliest movements toward communication. So where should you start when your child is developmentally delayed? At the start of the developmental sequence. Makes sense.
